Lethal Silence
by shadrougeforever
Summary: Shadow is offered the job of a lifetime! He leaves the Chaotix to become a G.U.N. lieutenant and works beside, Lieutenants Gin and Lien-Da. While working, he discovers something horribly wrong within the military. Something that may change Tech City forever. ShadowxRouge, ShadowxLien-Da COMPLETE
1. Chapter 1

**CHAPTER 1**

**THE OFFER**

It was early in the morning. The sun was shining brightly and the sky was calm with clouds floating around gracefully.

In a tall building, inside of an elevator, a black and red male hedgehog was staring out of the huge glass window in front of him. A green male crocodile who appeared to be in his late forties had his back leaned against the metal wall and his arms crossed. He watched as he saw the hedgehog admiring the beautiful view of the city and sky below them.

"Hey, Vector?" The hedgehog called without turning to him.

"What's up, Shad?"

"Don't you think it's weird that Mayor Wish wanted to see us so suddenly?"

The crocodile carelessly shrugged his shoulders. "A little."

The hedgehog spun around to face the crocodile. "What do you think is going on?"

"Who knows", he replied. "Perhaps she wanted to reward us for doing such a great job keeping this city in such good hands."

The hedgehog made a sarcastic laugh. Them and the team of detectives were always out risking their lives to protect the people of their beloved city. However, he knew that most of the credit went to the police or military soldiers. "Yeah that'll be the day she thanks a bunch of low rank detectives for saving an innocent civilian's life."

Vector took his back away from the wall and gave the hedgehog a serious look. "Now Shadow, no matter what goes down in her office promise me you'll remain calm and act professional." He knew most of the time that whenever Shadow had confronted the mayor of Tech City, there was always issues between them.

The hedgehog sighed heavily and crossed his arms as he turned away from him. "…No promises."

He gritted his teeth in annoyance towards the black hedgehog who gave him a careless attitude. "I mean it, Shadow! I won't have you acting hostile against someone who has the power to shut the agency down!"

Once the elevator stopped, Shadow began to walk out without turning to the crocodile. "Stop worrying so much…"

His aggravated eyes flashed over to the hedgehog as he watched him leave him in the elevator. He sighed heavily and murmured under his breath. "Who the fuck shit in his cereal this morning?" He followed him out of the elevator and made his way through fairly big brown double doors in a huge hallway. When he and Shadow entered the room, it was a huge office. There wasn't much in the room. The things that stood out was a huge desk setting in front of a huge glass window that allowed the powerful sunlight to light up the room.

The two froze in their tracks when they saw a yellow fox woman who appeared to be in her early forties. She had brown hair that was held up by a hair clip. Her outfit consisted of a brown blazer with a matching business skirt and black high heeled shoes. She was sitting in a black comfortable looking desk chair behind her brown desk.

A male fox who had white fur that almost seemed to be a silver color was standing beside her. He appeared to be several years older than Shadow. Judging by the military outfit he was wearing, he was clearly a G.U.N. soldier. He wore a white and light blue military trench coat, a black military hat, black skinny pants, black ankle high combat boots, and a military sword was on his side. There was only one golden star pinned to the upper chest area of his coat.

The two detectives gave the yellow fox woman a confused look.

"Um?" Vector started, "…What's going on here?"

The fox woman leaned against the surface of her desk and smiled warmly at the two confused detectives. "Vector…Shadow…how good it is to see you two. It's been awhile. Please take a seat."

The crocodile and hedgehog looked at each other and tried to figure out what was happening. What was going on? Who was the military soldier?

She watched as the two detectives hesitantly sat in two brown comfortable chairs in front of her desk.

"What's up, Sarah?" Vector demanded.

The fox woman arched an eyebrow at the cautious crocodile. "I see you're in quite the hurry so let's cut to the chase shall we?" She turned to the white fox, "Let me introduce you to G.U.N.'s first lieutenant, Gin."

The white fox tilted the rim of his hat towards the puzzled detectives. "Pleased to meet the Chaotix's leader and captain in the flesh."

Sarah turned back to the detectives and continued to explain. "With G.U.N. not having a commander, Gin and another lieutenant have been scouting to find another lieutenant to help balance out the military."

"I won't lie but the military has been fallen short on help and it takes a lot of strong officers believe it or not to keep order within the facility", the white fox explained.

Shadow crossed his arms as he listened to what the military officer had to say.

"However, the budget won't allow us to recruit so many S ranked officers so I've narrowed the playing field out a bit…" His dark purple eyes flashed over to the black hedgehog. "…Shadow The Hedgehog…"

The hedgehog's ears perked up as he spoke his name.

"…Captain of the Chaotix Detective Agency…I've seen what you can do. The power you harness…the power of Chaos am I right?"

Suddenly, Shadow couldn't help but to have a bad feeling.

"You maybe second in command but your fighting tactics and strategies are brilliant while on the line of battle. You are a born leader."

With Gin giving him all of the praise, he couldn't help but to form a small smile. "Thank you."

"Not to come off rude but…why are you working at a D rank detective agency? With the strength and power you possess, you don't seem like you belong there."

With him saying those words to Shadow, something inside of Vector had made him hostile. He pointed at the white fox, "What! You wanted us to come here so you can persuade Shadow to leave the Chaotix for G.U.N?"

Gin held his hands up as he saw Vector acting defensive. "Now, now I didn't just come here to take Shadow from you. I know that he's very dear to you and your team of detectives." His eyes shifted over to Shadow once more, "I just see more potential in him. His leadership skills are far from being low rated and he takes his job seriously. Not only will he be at working an S ranked position but think of the increase pay and the respect he'll get from other officers and civilians. We could use someone like him in our military." He watched as the black hedgehog stood from his chair and gave the white fox a cold glare. "Well you can take your offer and shove it. I despise the G.U.N. military and I could never work for such a shitty and stuck up organization."

Vector and Sarah had their mouth's hung open as they heard Shadow's blunt answer.

"I belong with the Chaotix. I'm happy where I reside and I don't need money or people fearing me just so they'll respect me like the typical soldier."

Gin was quite surprised that Shadow had carried such a deep hatred for the military. It made him wonder why he was so against them. "…Very well. I respect your wishes. I just thought I'd give it a go anyway." He confronted the hedgehog and placed his hand out for him to shake it. "…However I do hope you change your mind, Detective Hedgehog."

The hedgehog made a long pause before he shook his hand, "Don't count on it, Lieutenant Gin."

He took his hand from his and formed a sly smile before he began to walk out of Sarah's office. "It's been a pleasure, detectives."

Once he left the office, Vector turned to Sarah in anger. "Sarah, what the hell?"

"Oh Vector, don't get so upset! Gin wanted me to arrange this meeting just so he could simply offer Shadow the job of a lifetime. Shadow turned the position down and no harm was done."

Vector leaned his back against the chair he was sitting in and crossed his arms in annoyance. "Trying to steal the only and best captain I've ever had! The nerve of him!"

Sarah spun around and turned to Shadow who remained silent and stared down at the busy streets of Tech City with his thoughts lost.

**In The Next Chapter...**

**Charmy: They want Captain Shadow to become a G.U.N. officer? No way!**

**Tonya: You stepped away from a life changing position...are you sure?**

**Shadow: The entire military is full of shit. I would never be apart of something like that...**


	2. Chapter 2

**CHAPTER 2**

**JUSTIFY**

Later at the Chaotix Detective Agency, a purple cat woman was sitting at her desk in the main lobby. Her arms and legs were crossed and her light blue eyes were fixed on a purple male chameleon that was leaning against her brown desk. Judging by her expression she appeared annoyed with the chameleon. "I just don't understand", she spoke. "You wanna take me on date so badly but I thought you were dating another girl?"

He placed a finger to his chin and paused for a moment as he thought. "I think you mean Krissy."

She huffed angrily and rolled her eyes. "Yeah whoever the hell you were screwing around with the past week."

"Well", he began. "To be technical, we weren't dating. We were just…hanging out."

When she heard him saying hanging out, she knew that he and the last girl he was close with were having sex.

He saw the angered look on her face and he figured she was getting upset with him. "But she doesn't mean shit to me. None of these girls I screw around with means shit to me. Tonya, you're the only one woman I want to be with and you know it."

"Then why are you screwing around with a new girl every week?"

He shrugged his shoulders. "Hey I need to get somewhat laid on the daily and let's face it. You're playing hard to get pretty badly."

She sighed heavily in irritation and stood from her desk . "A real man doesn't go around and aimlessly fuck a new woman every week just because the girl they're so called in love with isn't sure about her feelings."

He had figured out why she was so upset with him. He had thought that she liked him this entire time but was too shy to admit it. "…So you do like me?"

She gave him a sympathetic look, "Get your shit together first, Espio. Then we can talk."

He watched her turn away and walk away from him. He sighed heavily and looked down to the floor as he was feeling full of regret. No wonder Tonya thought of him so lowly. She thought he was just like the average and typical sex fiend and her mentality was far from what he had always done.

A yellow and black male kid bee had hovered beside the sad chameleon. "Ouch, Espio…strike one…" He teased.

The chameleon looked over to him annoyance. "Shut the hell up, Charmy."

The bee made a teasing laugh at him. "I bet Tonya probably hates you."

"She does not hate me! We're partners for God's sake! We work side by side almost every day! It doesn't make sense why she thinks so lowly of me…"

"Oh gee I wonder why she's not into you either", he spoke sarcastically.

The two were interrupted when they saw a white bat woman walking from the backroom and into the lobby while looking down at her cell phone. "Oh come on, Charmy. Don't you think the poor guy's suffered enough today", she spoke when she looked away from her phone.

The chameleon took his body away from the desk and approached the bat woman. "Very funny", he spoke in a bitter tone. "What is this? You guys organized a let's shit all over Espio's day thing or what?"

The bat woman let out a small giggle. "Oh how did you know?"

He crossed his arms and decided to change the subject. "Have you heard anything from your little boyfriend?"

Even though, he was teasing her she couldn't help but to form a small smile on her face. Her and Shadow have been friends and partners for years and just recently the two had decided to finally start dating. "He said they just left Mayor Wish's office and they have some interesting news to tell us when they get back."

"Interesting news?" Charmy asked in excitement.

"I wonder what Mayor Wish had wanted to see them for." As Tonya thought, she placed her finger to her chin.

Before anyone could say anything else, Shadow and Vector had entered through the doors and stepped into the main lobby.

Charmy was excited to see Vector's return. He flew over to his boss in happiness. "Boss! You're back!"

The green crocodile grinned with delight at the excited kid bee. "Good to see you too, Charms."

The group of detectives approached Vector and Shadow in curiosity.

"Well?" Tonya began to ask eagerly. "What did Mayor Wish want?"

Vector looked over to the silent hedgehog standing beside him.

When Shadow saw Vector looking at him, he knew the spotlight was on him. "Mayor Wish and a military officer offered me the position as third lieutenant of G.U.N."

The lobby was filled with shocking gasps coming from the group of detectives.

"What?" Charmy spoke in disbelief. "Captain Shadow? A G.U.N. lieutenant? How cool!"

"Shadow, that's unbelievable!" Espio said in happiness for the hedgehog. "I bet you're really excited!"

"Excited?" The black hedgehog spoke blankly.

"Well yeah! You took the job…didn't you?" He watched as Shadow cross his arms and form a cold expression while he remained silent.

The detectives gave the hedgehog a look of disbelief when they figured Shadow didn't take the job.

"What?" Rouge spoke. "Shadow, are you sure? You're turning down a huge opportunity here."

"I know that but you should know how much I despise the military. Joining them would be the last thing I do besides…my place is here and we're leaving it at that."

Tonya watched as Shadow walked away from the group and made his way into his office.

"I agree with Shadow", Vector spoke. "Shadow is needed here with us."

A sweat drop formed on the side of Tonya's head. "Oh please! If Shadow ever left, you wouldn't know your head from your ass."

"Come on, Ton. That's totally not true", he spoke in a hesitant voice.

The purple cat woman placed her hands on her hips and sighed. "You know you could be a little more supportive."

As Vector and Tonya argued, Rouge thought that Shadow needed a much needed talking to about his huge decision.

**In The Next Chapter...**

**Rouge: We need to talk...**

**Shadow: There's nothing to talk about...**

**Rouge: Why do you hate the military so much?**

**Shadow: Do I have to really explain myself again?**

**Sarah: I'm sure you'll be the life of the party.**


	3. Chapter 3

**CHAPTER 3**

**UNDERSTANDING**

Later that night at Shadow's house, he and Rouge were sitting at a small table that had set in the kitchen. The two were sitting across from each other drinking alcohol. Rouge was drinking a glass of wine while Shadow was drinking beer from a bottle.

Rouge took note of Shadow drinking excessively when she saw a few empty beer bottles setting over on his side of the table. She however, was still working on her first glass of wine. "Shad, you need to slow down."

Before the hedgehog took another sip from the bottle in his hand, he gave her an irritated look. "I'm not even buzzed yet…"

"You said you would only have a few…and you're a little pass from just a few."

He shrugged his shoulders and began to drink more. "I'm pissed off okay?"

That explained everything. Shadow had a horrible alcohol addiction in the past. He was still a recovering alcoholic. He always had a beer or two at least every day instead of it being five or six. However, when he became stressed out or angered, he would intend to drink more than usual. She figured since the two were finally alone, Rouge decided to bring up the exciting news Shadow had shared with her and the group of detectives earlier before he had gotten too drunk to talk to later. "Shadow", she began. "We need to talk."

"About what?"

"About that big job offer you turned down…"

He practically slammed the beer bottle down as Rouge started to bring up the military to him. "I already told you and everyone else why I rejected Gin's offer."

"Because you simply hate the military? Shadow, I feel like there's something more to this…"

"What more could it be? You know how fucked up the military is!"

The bat woman shook her head slowly. "You can't blame the entire military over past events."

"Listen to yourself, Rouge! Do you remember what happened several months back?"

The white bat remained silent as she was sadly reminded about what had happened.

"Joseph! Does that name ring a bell? She was shot and killed by a military soldier!"

She slammed her fists down on the table over Shadow's uprising anger. "Damn it, Shadow! Yes I remember! I was there!"

"Then act like you fucking understand why I don't want to be apart of that shitty military!"

She and the rest of the detectives had explained to Shadow again and again that the entire incident with Joseph was an accident. However, Shadow was too stubborn and blinded by anger to understand. She decided to change the subject. "This isn't just about Joseph, Shadow! And you know it!"

He had gotten quiet and took another sip from the beer bottle.

"Look, I know deep down G.U.N. is not a bad military. They were just…misled by a couple of horrible commanders."

Shadow placed the beer bottle down on the table and gripped his hand around the bottle as he began to remember the military's previous commanders.

"Those soldiers need to be guided by new leaders who wants to better the military and the city." She looked up at Shadow who was lost in his thoughts it appeared. "I'm not forcing you to take the position but I just want to make you see and understand how badly the entire military has been corrupted. They need a fresh start. They need passionate people who care about the lives of millions of civilians."

He then saw Rouge place her hand gently over his. He slowly shifted his eyes over to her.

The bat woman sent the hedgehog a warm smile. "Don't you think Joseph would want that?"

He hesitated at first but then made a small nod letting her know that he agreed with her. He took her hand away from his and placed it on his cheek. "As much as I love working with you guys at the Chaotix, perhaps I'll partake on Gin's offer."

Her warm smile grew when she heard Shadow's surprising reply.

He kissed her hand softly and smiled warmly. "I swear I don't know where'd I'd be without you, babe."

She stood from her chair and sat on his lap. "Oh really?"

He made a small nod and held her body close to his. "I don't know how you put up with me."

She leaned her head on his chest and stroked his chest lightly. She giggled softly, "I've been putting up with your shit for years and it wasn't easy. Just look how long it took for you to finally ask me out?"

"Well", he began. "I wasn't sure how I felt about you at first but now I know…"

She lifted her head from his chest and stared into his red eyes with him staring back into her eyes.

"We're definitely meant for each other and nothing's going to change that." He leaned closer to her until his lips had met hers. The two were then locked into a passionate kiss.

Rouge slowly took her lips from his and leaned on his shoulder happily. "I love you, Shad."

He kissed her forehead softly, "I love you too, Rouge."

The next day, Shadow decided to meet up with Sarah to tell her of his change of mind about the position of becoming a lieutenant.

While Sarah sat behind her desk, she had her attention focused on the black hedgehog standing in front of her. "So, what made you want to change your mind all of a sudden? You stood pretty firm with your answer yesterday."

"I just put more thought into it. Yesterday, I realized I was still living in the past. All I knew back then was G.U.N. was ran by selfish and ruthless commanders."

Sarah's heart skipped a beat as her mind was filled with images of a male gray mongoose and a male red wolf with blonde hair. It almost made her sick remembering the horrifying events that involved the two.

"Being involved with that shit led me to believe that the entire military was against everything that stood in the way of helping people. But it's not their fault…they need strong leaders…and I'm willing to help anyway I can."

She made a small nod towards him as she agreed with his words. Just hearing Shadow say that made her have faith within the military once again. "I'm glad you changed your mind about this Shadow, but you're not in just yet."

He arched an eyebrow in confusion at the yellow fox woman until he saw her hand him a

white piece of paper. He took the paper from her hand and started to glance through it.

"The military is having a little ball…a get together. I think it's the perfect opportunity to introduce yourself to other fellow G.U.N. soldiers and give a proper introduction to Lieutenant Gin and Lieutenant Lien-Da."

He looked away from the paper and turned to Sarah blankly. "…Lieutenant Lien-Da?"

She nodded, "She's the second lieutenant next to Gin being the first."

He then remembered that Gin had mentioned that he and another lieutenant had been looking for a third lieutenant. He had no idea that the second lieutenant would be a woman. "…I see."

Sarah sat back down in her chair and crossed her legs. "Anyway, I know they'll both be very excited to meet you, Mr. ultimate life form. I'm sure you'll be the life of the party", she spoke with a sly smile.

Before Shadow could leave the room, Sarah had spoke to him once again.

"Oh and Shadow?"

The black hedgehog slowly turned to her in curiosity.

She leaned her head on her hand while her arm rested on the desk. She gave him a teasing look, "It's still a dance kind of thing so make sure you bring a date."

He paused and then shook his head in annoyance. "Sounds like a blast already", he spoke in a sarcastic tone before he left her office.

**In The Next Chapter...**

**Rouge: Do you think you could not do this tonight?**

**Gin: Welcome to G.U.N, Lieutenant Shadow!**

**Shadow: Rouge, stop it! You're embarrassing me!**

**Lien-Da: So this is the ultimate life form? Interesting...**

**Rouge: Men are so typical!**


	4. Chapter 4

**CHAPTER 4**

**THE BALL**

Later that night inside of a large convention hall, huge groups of people filled the vast ballroom. The room was decorated with colors of gold and blue. Some people were in military uniforms but most others were dressed in formal wear. People were socializing, drinking, eating, and dancing to the calm and soothing music played by a live performing music act.

Shadow tried not to become so nervous by the huge event that was going on. He felt so out of place. He then snapped out of his thoughts when he felt a light nudge on his arm. He turned to the white bat woman standing beside him.

She wore a quite revealing dark blue mini dress with black high heeled shoes. Her long white hair was placed up in a messy fashion but still looked classy with her outfit. She whispered to the black hedgehog. "You're not nervous are you?" She asked with a teasing tone.

The black hedgehog wore a black suit, a red tie, and black dress shoes to match the suit. He crossed his arms in irritation as he knew she was teasing him. "Of course not…" His eyes flashed over to the drink table and decided that a little something to drink wouldn't hurt. "I'm going to get something to drink."

Before she could say anything to him, he shot over to the drink table. A sweat drop appeared on the side of her head. "Damn it, Shadow", she murmured as she stormed her way over to the table as well.

While Shadow was getting himself a glass of red wine, a male white fox had caught sight of the hedgehog. He decided to make his way towards him.

When Rouge had finally caught up to Shadow, she saw him practically chug the entire glass of wine. Her eyes widened in shock, "For God's sakes, Shadow!"

He shrugged his shoulders apathetically. "What?"

She flashed her eyes around the group of people that surrounded them and decided to speak in a low tone. "Can you not do this tonight?"

"Rouge, relax. I'm not gonna get shitfaced okay?" He spoke back to her in a low voice.

She became filled with doubt when she saw him pouring more red wine into his glass. "Just don't fuck up your chances with this okay?"

The two were suddenly interrupted when a white male fox approached them with a glass of red wine in his hand. "Ah, Shadow! I'm so glad you could make it!"

The hedgehog and bat turned to the white wolf and saw him wearing a black suit with a matching tie and dress shoes.

Shadow's eyes widened at the sight of the fox standing beside him and Rouge. "Lieutenant Gin!"

"Oh please, enough with the formalities. You're with us now if I did hear correctly from Mayor Wish?"

Shadow made a small nod, "You heard right."

The fox's eyes shifted over to the white bat woman standing next to him. "Who is this lovely lady standing next to you?"

Shadow's eyes lazily shifted over to Rouge. "Oh her? She's my date." He then felt her lightly punch him in the arm. He had apparently made her upset that he didn't mention to Gin that she was also his girlfriend. He held his arm and gave her an annoyed look. "…And girlfriend."

She turned away from Shadow and gave Gin a warm smile. "My name is Rouge."

He gave her the same warm smile in return, "The name is Gin." He thought it was cute to see Shadow and Rouge flirt in public and be so comfortable with it. "I see. She's quite the catch."

A light blush formed on her face as Gin complimented her. "Why thank you, lieutenant."

Gin focused his attention back to Shadow. "I'm ecstatic that you managed to change your mind, Shadow." He held out his hand so the hedgehog could shake it. "Welcome to G.U.N, Lieutenant Shadow."

When Gin called him by that name it made him feel appreciated and respected. He shook the fox's hand, "Thank you."

When Gin took his hand from Shadow's, his eyes began to wander around the huge ballroom as if he was looking for someone. "If only I could find that woman…"

"Who?" Rouge asked.

"You looking for me, Lieutenant Gin?" A feminine voice spoke behind him.

Gin, Shadow, and Rouge turned to a female red echidna who appeared to be few years older than Shadow. She had long red dreadlocks with some of them appearing to be cybernetic. She wore a long black dress with a slit that revealed much of her leg and the dress also revealed her massive cleavage. She had on black high heeled shoes to match her dress.

Shadow and Rouge's mouth hung open at the sight of her. They couldn't deny it. She was gorgeous.

When Rouge caught sight of Shadow practically drooling over her. She glared at him until he noticed her staring him down and snapped out of his thoughts.

"Shadow…Rouge…allow me to introduce you to G.U.N's second lieutenant, Lien-Da."

The echidna woman confronted Shadow and Rouge with a welcoming expression on her face. "Pleased to me you." She faced Gin with a confused look, "Say, Gin? This hedgehog standing in front of me wouldn't be the Shadow you've been raving about is it?"

The fox nodded, "Of course! I'm just gonna let you guys chat. Shadow knows plenty about me already."

Shadow watched Gin walk away leaving him with Rouge and Lien-Da. He thought Gin was so wrong. Even though Shadow had met up with Gin before Lien-Da, he was sure he didn't know the first thing about him. He still seemed very mysterious to him. He snapped out of his thoughts when Lien-Da started talking to him.

"I can't believe I'm in the presence of the ultimate life form."

Rouge uneasily watched as Lien-Da had made herself comfortable around Shadow quickly.

"I'm not all that great." Even though she was complimenting him, he acted like what she had said wasn't a big deal.

"Oh don't be so modest!" She stood next to him and started filling her glass up with wine before she continued to talk to him more.

Rouge's blood boiled when she saw her body getting closer and closer to Shadow's.

The echidna woman took a sip from her glass while she continued to make conversation with Shadow. "So how does it feel being the new third lieutenant of G.U.N?"

Before Shadow could answer, Rouge practically came in between them.

Lien-Da knew by the look in Rouge's eyes that she was filled with jealousy. "Oh! Who are you? His date?"

"I'm his girlfriend", she practically growled in a low voice.

Lien-Da remained silent until Shadow pulled her away from her.

Rouge gave Shadow a frustrated look from his sudden actions towards her. "What?"

"What the hell are you doing?" He asked in a low voice.

"I don't like her!"

"Stop it! You're embarrassing me in front of her!"

"I just feel like there's something off about her…and I don't like it."

Shadow was shocked to hear Rouge be so blunt about her feelings towards Lien-Da. He figured she was jealous because she was pretty and really open towards him unlike Gin. "Just because the second lieutenant is a girl and is mega friendly, it doesn't mean go psycho bitch."

"But…" Before she could continue, Shadow placed a finger to her lips.

"I won't have you ruin this night for me because you're jealous over some girl I met not even two minutes ago!"

She trusted Shadow but not Lien-Da. In her eyes, she seemed like a really shady character to her. She paused for a moment and she couldn't deny that she felt hurt that Shadow had called her jealous even though she was. When he took his finger from her lips, she took a deep and sighed heavily before she spoke to him again. "Sorry for acting like a psycho bitch", she growled. "I'm going to find the bathroom so I can clear my jealous little head."

Shadow could tell from the bitterness of her voice that she was angry from his comments to her. Before he could say anything else to her, she stormed away from the two.

When Rouge flung the bathroom door open, she walked over to the sink and leaned against it with her mind still clouded with anger. She stared angrily at her reflection that was in the mirror that hung on the wall in front of her. She growled under her breath, "Jealous huh? Men are so fucking typical…"

**In The Next Chapter...**

**Lien-Da: I'm sorry I caused any problems between you and your girlfriend...**

**Shadow: She's just pissed off cause your attractive...**

**Rouge: I can't believe this! You're drunk!**

**Lien-Da: I look forward to working with you, Shadow...**

**Rouge: You stay away from him, you bitch!**

**Gin:...Really?**


	5. Chapter 5

**CHAPTER 5**

**THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM**

After when Rouge had stormed off, Shadow immediately regretted everything that he had said to her. He felt awful for upsetting her even more than she was.

Lien-Da saw Shadow's strange behavior and decided to attempt to take his mind off of the apparent heated conversation he just had with Rouge. She confronted him with a glass of wine in both of her hands. "Come on. We can talk outside."

He saw her walking out towards the balcony outside of the room and decided to follow her. When he walked outside of the huge balcony, it was surprising just him and her. He saw her leaning against the white railing of the balcony. He slowly walked over to her and stood beside her. He saw her hand him one of the glasses full of wine. He uneasily took the glass from her hands. This was going on his sixth or possibly seventh glass of alcohol and he had swore to Rouge he wouldn't get too drunk. However, by the way things were going for him, he thought he needed anything to make his night go easier than it was. After when he took a sip from the glass, he looked over to Lien-Da who was admiring the shining stars that filled the dark sky.

A warm smile formed on her lips as she stared into the sky. "When I was a little girl, I always loved to stay up late and stare into the night sky." She looked over to Shadow with the warm smile still present on her face, "It's always so beautiful to look at."

As Shadow looked over to her, he felt like he couldn't take his eyes away from her light blue eyes. His eyes had seemed to aimlessly wander down to her huge breasts. He knew this was bad, he had to admit to himself, he was drunk and if he wasn't careful, he could say one thing that would blow his chances of becoming a G.U.N. lieutenant. He tried to gather his thoughts together before loosely saying things he didn't mean. "…Um yeah…very nice…"

She could tell by him pausing and slurring his words, he was drunk. "By the way, I'm sorry if I caused any tension between you and your girlfriend. I didn't mean…"

"…What? No, it's not your fault. She…gets like that…sometimes…" He felt like he couldn't balance himself very well without leaning against the railing and his swaying was very noticeable to Lien-Da.

She couldn't help but to find how he was acting amusing to her. However, she tried to carry on the conversation and pretended like him being drunk wasn't a big deal. "But I still feel bad…really bad…"

"…Don't…feel bad. She's just pissed off cause you're attractive…" A long pause had took place until Shadow realized what he had just said to her, a military lieutenant. His eyes widened in horror, "Oh shit! I…didn't mean…"

She felt like she could no longer contain her laughter and couldn't help but to giggle from Shadow's reaction. "Oh, Shadow! You're hilarious! And I thought you would be a stick in the mud like Gin!"

He couldn't help but to escape a laugh from her reaction. He had thought she would get offended but she was so open and friendly towards him. She was nothing like he would expect from the second lieutenant of G.U.N. "Yeah…I act a little…different when I'm drunk." He suddenly felt her hand caress his until she gently took the glass of wine out of his hand.

"…Maybe you had enough for tonight…"

"…The night is still young…" He watched her drink the remaining wine that was left in the glass and set it down on the railing. Before he could say anything else to her, he heard a loud fake cough near them. When he and Lien-Da spun around, they saw an irritated white bat woman storming her way over to them.

"Oh Rouge there you are", Lien-Da had spoke. She suddenly saw her point her finger at her.

"Shut up!" She spat.

The echidna couldn't believe what had came from Rouge's mouth. She placed her hands on her hips and glared at the bat woman. "Excuse me?"

Rouge's eyes flashed over to the black hedgehog who was swaying his body beside her. "Oh what the fuck! Shadow! You're drunk!"

The hedgehog shook his head slowly, "N-No…I'm not…"

Frustrated, she placed her hand on her forehead and sighed. "Damn it, Shadow! We have to go home. You can't be like this here…" Before she could tug Shadow away, Gin had walked out onto the huge balcony. Her heart skipped a beat from the sight of him. She didn't want Gin to see Shadow intoxicated but unfortunately he was going to regardless.

The white fox approached the group. "So this is where everyone was hiding! I had wanted Shadow to say a few words to his new comrades." He rose an eyebrow as he saw Shadow barely having the power to stand up straight and he reeked of alcohol. "Um…is he drunk?"

Rouge gave the fox an apologetic look. "Please don't count this against Shadow. I'm sure he didn't mean…"

Gin let out a small chuckle, "No, no it's fine. It's a party. Everyone's drinking. Shadow's just having fun and there's nothing wrong with that."

A sigh of relief formed on her face after when she discovered how understanding Gin was towards the situation.

"I just don't want him walking into the military like that and we're good."

She made a small nod and then turned to the drunk hedgehog, "We should get going, Shad."

Lien-Da decided to say a few more words to Shadow before he took off with Rouge. "It was nice finally meeting you, Shadow."

Shadow made a smile towards her and shook her hand, "You…too, Lien-Da."

Lien-Da arched an eyebrow when she saw Rouge confront her while glaring at her coldly.

"And you!" Rouge spoke in an angered tone. "You stay away from Shadow!"

She was amused by Rouge's sudden hate towards her. She figured that Rouge really did feel threatened by her. She got a kick out of her jealousy. "Oh?" She formed a sly smirk and gave Shadow a seductive look. "I look forward to working very closely with you, Shadow…"

"Why you…" Before Rouge could say anything else to her, Shadow pulled her away from her.

"Stop it! Let's go!"

She sighed heavily and stormed away from Gin and Lien-Da with Shadow by her side.

When the two left, Gin turned to Lien-Da and shook his head. "…Really?"

The echidna shrugged her shoulders, "What? She was being a total bitch. Besides…I can't help it if they're having relationship issues…"

**In The Next Chapter...**

**Shadow: For God's sake! She was not flirting with me!**

**Rouge: I know what I saw! She was trying to get you drunk!**

**Shadow: Why are you acting like this?**

**Vector: I can't believe this is happening...**

**Shadow: Vector, don't...**

**Vector: You were the best captain I've ever had...**


	6. Chapter 6

**CHAPTER 6**

**THE LAST FAREWELL**

Much later at Shadow's house, Shadow was laying on his bed with a pillow over his face while Rouge angrily paced around the bedroom they were in. With Rouge's angered expression and her relentless ranting, it was safe to say that she was still not happy with the way Shadow had acted at the party. He let out a heavy sigh into the fluffy pillow that was over his face while Rouge continued to argue with him.

"I can't believe you acted like that!" She said in an angry tone, "You were flirting with that stupid girl and you got drunk after when you said you wouldn't!"

The hedgehog took the pillow away from his face and sat up from the bed he was laying on. He sat on the bed and rested his hand on his forehead from the uprising headache he was getting. "Okay first of all, I'm pretty sober now. Second of all, Lien-Da and I weren't flirting! She was just being really friendly! How was that a crime?"

She stopped in her tracks and faced Shadow with her arms crossed over her chest. "I saw her giving you drinks left and right! She was trying to get you drunk!"

He shook his head slightly when he knew that she was trying to over think the events that had taken place earlier at the party. "Okay now you're just jumping to conclusions here. She just gave me one little glass of wine. The rest was all me." He looked up at the not so happy bat woman. "You saw me throw down on the booze practically the entire time we were there. Besides, I came there kind of tipsy anyway. To be honest, I pregamed a little before we left…"

Her mouth hung open when she found out that Shadow had a few drinks even before they arrived at the party. "Oh what the fuck, Shadow!"

He constantly shook his head as he regretted drinking before they left for the ball. "I'll admit that I was feeling a tad bit uneasy before we went there. I thought I needed a little something to help me become a little more social."

Now it all came to her. Now she knew the reason why Shadow was acting so out of character. He was way too talkative and being extremely open. Not only that, she could now see why he said certain hurtful things to her. "I can't believe you! You can't stop drinking for one second!"

He felt like he couldn't look her in the eyes so he looked down to the floor shamefully. "…I know. I'm sorry, Rouge."

Rouge didn't know if she could accept his apology for over drinking again. She knew Shadow still had slip ups with his recovering alcohol addiction and it caused problems between them before. She was determined to try to work through it with him regardless. However, it wasn't the easiest thing in the world.

When he looked back at Rouge, he could tell she was really frustrated and it made him feel even worse for putting her through his intense drinking problem. "Look Rouge, I know I've said some crazy things tonight and I didn't mean to."

"Oh? So you do remember some things?" She spoke in a bitter voice.

"…I got drunk. Not wasted", he spoke in a low tone. "Anyway, you know I didn't mean to call you a psycho bitch. You were just trying to look after me." He watched as she sat down on the bed beside him. He placed his hand on her leg and gave her an apologetic look. "And if you felt like I was trying to get in Lien-Da's panties, I'm sorry for that too."

A small giggle escaped her, "Okay maybe I did perhaps…overreact a bit but it's not like I had no reason to! I mean…she was fucking gorgeous!"

He arched an eyebrow towards her, "…And you're not?"

She formed a light blush, "…I don't know…I've never felt this way before towards another woman who's super pretty. And now that you're leaving the Chaotix, I won't be working next to you everyday…she will…"

He was shocked to actually hear this coming from her. She actually thought that there would be a chance that he would leave her for Lien-Da.

"…I just don't want to lose you, Shad." She suddenly felt Shadow's hand caressing her cheek. She placed her hand over his and looked into his red eyes.

"After all the crap we've been through together, you think I'm just going to turn my back on you and leave you for another woman?" It actually hurt him to know that Rouge felt like he would be the type to leave her for a woman he barely even knew. "Don't be so stupid. I love you, Rouge. You're the only woman I want in my life."

It made her smile in relief when she heard those words coming from him. She knew deep down that Shadow would never betray their relationship. It was just the jealousy that put all of those thoughts in her head. "You really mean that, Shadow?"

He made a small nod, "Of course I do. You're my everything. I need you in my life." He noticed her smile widen and watched her lean in to kiss him. While the two shared a passionate kiss, he wrapped his arms around her and held her close to him.

She took her lips from his continued to smile warmly towards him. "I love you, Shadow."

He lightly kissed her forehead, "Back at ya, babe." His smile faded as he began to remember why they had this entire conversation in the first place. "I just wish I could stop drinking so much…"

"Well, you stopped at one point."

"Yeah and I started it back up again." He sighed heavily, "It's really hard but I'll try to stop."

She held his hands gently. "You can do it, Shad. I know you can."

He smiled warmly at her and kissed her once again.

It was early the next morning at the Chaotix and Vector had made his way into Shadow's small office. When stood in the doorway, he watched as Shadow was placing some office supplies and other things into small brown boxes. He looked around the empty room in sadness. "I can't believe this is happening…"

Shadow had paused from placing his things in the box and turned to the crocodile.

"I remember like it was yesterday…when you first joined the agency, you were so young but you grew up a lot over the years."

He saw him walk over to his messy desk and pick up one of the photos that were scattered all over the desk.

Vector stared at a photo that appeared to be taken a few years back. Shadow, Rouge, Espio, Tonya, Charmy, and himself were grouped together and standing in front of the X-jet. "You got stronger and wiser. You've matured from just a simple detective to an amazing team captain." He placed the photo back down on the desk and glanced down at the other photos. Each and every photo contained fond memories of Shadow's brightest moments while he worked for the Chaotix. Some were of him when he was just a teenager and others were fairly recent. He was surprised to even find a few photos of Shadow and his first real girlfriend, Faye.

Shadow saw how emotional Vector was getting as he saw him staring at all of the photos. He cracked a small smile, "For God's sake Vec, don't cry on me."

Vector looked away from the pictures and turned to the hedgehog with a small smile. "You were the best captain I have ever had."

The hedgehog chuckled a bit. "I was the only captain you ever had."

"Yeah", he made a nod and formed a small smile. "But I don't regret it. You went through some tough shit before and after Faye left us. You were in a bad place one time. You became an alcoholic and a drug addict when you thought the world turned against you. But I didn't give up on you, me and the guys helped you through it and now look at you…you're stronger than ever."

He crossed his arms and formed a sly look. "You wouldn't be trying to guilt trip me here are you?"

A small laugh escaped him while he shook his head. "No way! I mean it sucks that you're leaving but at the same time, I'm proud of you. You worked so hard to get where you are and it's because you never stopped fighting for what you care about."

A warm smile formed on his lips. He suddenly felt it hard to swallow and his hands started to shake slightly. Tears were beginning to swell in his eyes. He looked away from him as he didn't want Vector to see his expression.

Judging by Shadow's behavior, he knew he was about to break down crying. He continued to warmly smile at the hedgehog. "…I not only thought of Charmy as a son but I felt the same way towards you too, Shad."

A sniffle came from the hedgehog while he continued to look away from Vector. "…It's not like I'm moving or anything, you dumbass."

"I know but this place was like a second home to you. It's just going to be…different now that you're gone." Tears started to swell in his eyes as well, "You better believe we're going to miss you being here, Shadow."

When Shadow could no longer hold himself back, tears streamed down his face. He placed his hand on his forehead as he started to quietly sob in happiness. "I'm going to miss you too…all of you…" He watched as Vector suddenly embraced him with tears streaming down his face as well.

While the two were saying their goodbyes, Tonya, Charmy, Espio, and Rouge were watching the two from the doorway in happiness and sadness.

Tears ran down Charmy's face as he saw Vector hug Shadow. "I'm really gonna miss Captain Shadow…"

Tonya made a small nod and rubbed the kid bee's shoulder. "We all are, Charmy. We all are…"

**In The Next Chapter...**

**Shadow: I'm a military lieutenant now so that means we won't be seeing each other every day like we were.**

**Rouge: So this is the part where we start distancing ourselves from each other...**

**Shadow: My love for you will never fade. Don't ever forget that...**


	7. Chapter 7

**CHAPTER 7**

**A THING CALLED LOVE**

The next morning, Shadow and Rouge were in Shadow's bedroom.

Rouge was sitting on his bed while she watched him stare at his reflection in the mirror that set on the floor in front of him.

Shadow couldn't get over how different he had looked wearing his new military uniform. He wore a long black trench tailcoat with gold buttons, black fitted pants, knee high black boots, a black military hat, and three gold stars were pinned on the upper right chest area of his coat. He looked like he had actually belonged in the military.

Rouge was impressed with how he had looked wearing the uniform. "The uniform fits you well, Shad. You look very handsome."

He turned to her and saw her wearing her usual purple uniform. He formed a sly look towards her. "Heh, I know I do."

She made a small teasing smile, "…You look too good. You wouldn't be trying to impress Miss Lien-Da would you?"

He let out a light sight and shook his head slightly towards her. "…Stop it. I thought I told you I have no interest in her whatsoever."

She nodded her head slightly then shifted her eyes away from him. She regretted even bringing up her name. All it did was cause problems between the two. "Yeah you did…I'm just…being stupid."

He walked over to her and sat next to her on the bed. He held her hand as he looked into her eyes. "I won't lie and say things won't be a little different between us now. We won't be beside each other everyday like we were. You'll be busy with the Chaotix and I'm a military lieutenant now. We're gonna be on two entirely different schedules."

She couldn't help but to look away from him in sadness. "So this is the part in the relationship where we start distancing ourselves from each other…"

He was beginning to become frustrated with her and her attitude. It was like everything he was saying to her had always backfired on him. Today was supposed to be a good, clean, and fresh start for him. He wanted Rouge to support him but so far, she was just bringing both of their days down. "Rouge, just because I have another job it doesn't mean we don't get to ever see each other. You have my number and you know you're always welcome here."

She looked back at him and nodded as she agreed with him. She watched him take her hand and kiss it gently.

"My love for you will never fade…remember that."

She looked back at him and smiled warmly. She suddenly saw him reaching inside of his coat pocket. She saw him placing something small in the palm of her hand. She looked closely and saw a silver heart shaped locket necklace placed in her hand. Her eyes lit up in admiration of it. "Oh my God…Shadow, it's beautiful…"

He wrapped his arms around her and rested his head on her shoulder. "Open it."

She slowly opened the locket and saw that it had a citation carved inside of it. Her smile widened as she glanced through the words. "Love is patient. Love is kind. Love is wholesome. Love is forever…" She turned to him happily, "Oh Shadow, I love it!"

He took his head from her shoulder and caressed her cheek with his hand. "And I love you, Rouge. So much…" He watched her lean close to him and started to kiss him passionately. While their tongues danced inside of each other's mouths, he noticed how she was rubbing her body against his. She then practically tackled him down onto the bed and got on top of him.

Shadow took his lips from hers and formed a small smile. "…This sucks."

She rested her forehead on his and started teasing him by grinding herself slightly over his lower stomach. "What sucks, sweetie?"

His hands playful started to caress her lower body. "Cause I wanna fuck you now."

She giggled softly, "Then why don't you just fuck me?"

"I have to be at work in thirty minutes…" He watched her kiss his lips once more and gave him a seductive smile after pulling away from him.

"Well that gives us all the more reason to be quick."

He paused and then gave her the same look back. "…I'm not taking this uniform off. It's too much shit." He then felt her hands move down to his lower region and heard his belt being undone.

"You don't have to worry about a thing, hun."

He felt her hands taking out his member and gently began to massage it.

Her hands stroked him gently until in no time, she could feel his manhood hardening.

Shadow let out a slight moan when he felt the warmth from Rouge's mouth being placed over his uprising member. He stroked his fingers through her white soft hair as she sucked him harder. "Fuck, Rouge…"

While she sucked him, her fingers continued to stroke all around his large shaft. She took her tongue and gently began to lick the tip of it playfully.

When Shadow thought he could no longer handle her constant teasing, he sat up from the bed and pulled her into a loving kiss.

While she passionately kissed her lover, she felt his hands traveling around her waist. In no time, she could feel her pants being taken off of her along with her boots and underwear. After when she heard the rustling of her clothes hitting the floor, she saw him position her body on top of him. She winced slightly as he slowly started to place himself inside of her. She made a small gasp as he forced himself deeper inside of her.

He wrapped his arms around her body lovingly. He leaned over to her and whispered softly into her ear. "I love you, Rouge."

She made a loving smile towards him as she could tell in his eyes that he truly meant how he really felt about her. "I love you too, Shadow."

He gave her a quick peck on the lips and began to thrust himself in and out of her slowly.

The room was filled with their small moans as the two made love to each other.

Rouge's moans grew louder as his thrusts had gotten faster. When she noticed that his movements were becoming more aggressive, she knew he was about to end their session together. She called his name out in orgasm as she felt his sudden warm rush fill inside of her throbbing opening. "Oh, Shadow!" She then collapsed on his body with sweat pouring from her head and her chest heaving in exhaustion.

While Shadow held her body in his arms, a small chuckle escaped him. "Babe, I love you but if you don't get off of me, I'm gonna have to beg Vector for my job back…"

**In The Next Chapter...**

**Lien-Da: Oh...hello stranger...**

**Shadow: What's going on?**

**Gin: This place has suffered for so long...**

**Lien-Da: We need someone like you here, Shadow.**

**Shadow:...**


	8. Chapter 8

**CHAPTER 8**

**A FRESH START**

Meanwhile, military soldiers were lined up across the big and white hall inside of the G.U.N. military facility. The soldiers saluted and smiled warmly towards the red echidna woman who was gracefully walking down the hallway.

She wore a black military hat, a long black and purple colored trench coat, black leather knee high boots with a slight heel to them, and she wore a black skin tight leather bodysuit underneath her trench coat. She had two gold stars that were pinned on the upper right area of her coat. Her hair fluttered gently while she walked past the male soldiers who admired her.

"Good morning, Lieutenant Lien-Da!" One soldier spoke happily.

"Bless you, Miss Lien-Da!" Another soldier spoke out.

She turned to all of the soldiers with a wide warm smile on her face, "Why thank you", she spoke in a soft and calm tone. "A lovely morning to you all too!"

She turned her back and continued to walk down the hall while the soldiers continued to rave about her. When she turned and began to walk down another narrow hallway, she suddenly bumped into someone. "Hey! Watch where you're…" Her sentence trailed off when she immediately recognized who the soldier was. A calm smile formed on her lips as she laid her eyes upon a male black and red hedgehog who was wearing a black and gold military uniform. "Oh", she said while she crossed her arms. "Why hello there, stranger."

When he realized that he had bumped into Lien-Da, the hedgehog immediately started to apologize. "Lieutenant Lien-Da! I-I'm sorry."

A small giggle came from her as she studied how discombobulated he had looked while in her presence. "It's quite all right, Lieutenant Shadow."

Even though he had been called lieutenant more than once already, it still felt good to hear people say it. "I thought I was running kind of late so I rushed a bit."

Before she could speak, they both heard Gin's voice coming from behind them.

"You're not late at all."

The two turned and faced a white male fox wearing the white and light blue trench coat Shadow saw him wear when the two had first met.

The fox gave them both a friendly smile. "You came here just in time to be precise. Now we can get this huge announcement done and over with."

The two watched Gin walk over to a small microphone that was hanging on the white wall and started to talk into it.

"Attention all G.U.N. personnel, there will be a meeting being held in the conference hall. Everyone must attend. I repeat, everyone must attend. Thank you!"

Shadow turned to Lien-Da in confusion. "What's going on?"

"If I recall correctly, you never got the chance to introduce yourself to the entire G.U.N. staff", she spoke.

"So we've arranged one for this morning", Gin finished.

Shadow then remembered that he in fact haven't exactly met any of the G.U.N. soldiers other than Lien-Da and Gin. "Oh, that's right."

"Come on. We should get going."

While Shadow followed them both down the long and narrow hallway, he heard the two making conversation.

Lien-Da formed a small smirk towards the white fox while she walked beside him. "You're acting well spirited today. You must've taken your meds this morning."

He shifted his eyes in annoyance at the echidna woman. "What? Am I not allowed to be in a decent mood, Lien-Da?"

She giggled softly, "Nope! I think you're an imposter!"

He couldn't help but to crack a small smile at her innocent jokes towards him. "And I think you had your daily bowl of crazy flakes."

Shadow saw how the two were acting around each other and it shocked him to find out that Gin and Lien-Da were fairly good friends. At first impression, he thought the two were just strictly business. Soon enough, Shadow had found himself in a huge room that was filled with many soldiers and others who worked within the facility. He, Lien-Da, and Gin had stood side by side in front of the large crowd. As he continued to look around the room, he had to admit that he was quite nervous. He didn't know what exactly to say as a first impression to his new teammates.

Gin stood in front of a wooden podium and directed his attention to the crowd. He lightly tapped the microphone that was set on the surface of the podium to get everyone's attention. He began to talk into the microphone. "Good morning, comrades! Today, Lieutenant Lien-Da and I are happy to announce that we now have a third lieutenant to help us keep order and peace in and out of the facility." He turned to Shadow with a small smile and made a nod letting him know that he was ready for him to say what he needed to say in front of everyone. When he saw Shadow standing beside him, he turned to the crowd once more, "Everyone, give a warm welcome to G.U.N's new third lieutenant, Lieutenant Shadow!"

When Gin, stepped away Shadow had stood in front of the crowd who was clapping and cheering for him. He waited for everyone to stop clapping before he spoke into the microphone. "Thank you all for the warm welcome. Some of you may have heard of me. I used to work for the detective agency, Chaotix but I left on good terms of course. I came here because I know this place has been through some rough times over the years. This place and the people here have been mistreated and misguided."

While Shadow spoke, Lien-Da looked at some of the soldiers and saw some of them having tears in their eyes and sad looks on their faces. She slowly turned to Gin standing beside her and saw him listening to Shadow's speech. She noticed him glaring and biting his lip lightly. '…Gin…'

Shadow continued his speech, "My goal is to help repair this military and the city from these damages. I look forward to working with each and everyone one of you!"

Afterwards, everyone stood from their chairs and clapped after hearing Shadow's heartwarming speech.

Shadow spun around to Gin and Lien-Da and saw the two clapping and smiling at him.

After when the meeting was over, Shadow, Gin, and Lien-Da were sitting at a big table together while they were all in a smaller and more private conference room.

The echidna woman turned to Shadow with an impressed look while she sat beside him. "Shadow, that was amazing! You practically had the entire staff in tears!"

He formed a small smile, "I didn't know really what to say. I just said what I felt from the heart."

"It was very moving." She turned to Gin who was sitting at the end of the huge table. "Wasn't it, Gin?"

He made a small nod towards the two. "I have to admit it. What you said back there touched me. This entire military has suffered for so long…"

After hearing Gin say that, Shadow couldn't help but to wonder how long Gin and Lien-Da has served under G.U.N. "…How long have you guys actually been here?"

Gin had paused for a moment before he actually answered his question. "…As long as I can remember.

"…How long exactly?"

This time Gin remained silent and looked over to Lien-Da letting her know that he didn't feel comfortable with the subject anymore.

Lien-Da sadly looked down at the surface of the table as she began to explain. "A little after Itsuki started running G.U.N. as commander…"

By the way, the two had looked he figured bringing up the past commanders had brought up a lot of bad memories for them. "…So you two did know Itsuki and Fakir?"

A sarcastic laugh came from her. "Know them? Shit…"

Shadow arched an eyebrow in confusion towards her.

She slowly looked away from the surface of the table and turned to the curious hedgehog. "…Gin and I were their apprentices…"

Shadow practically stood from his chair in shock from her words. "What!"

"…That's right", Gin spoke. "In case either of them had kicked the bucket, Lien-Da and I would be forced to take lead of the entire facility."

Shadow was lost for words. He couldn't believe that the two were personally trained by his past arch enemies. If he wasn't cautious about Gin and Lien-Da at first, he knew he sure was now.

Lien-Da saw Shadow's shocked expression and she figured all kinds of things were running through his head. Most of it being negative things about her and Gin. "Shadow, this was before we knew…"

"…That they were both lying pieces of shit", Gin had finished bitterly.

"When we found out…we were devastated…"

"Shadow", Gin had spoken. "We're aware of your past confrontations with them and I know that you're thinking that we must be exactly like them…"

Shadow shifted his eyes away from him slowly in guilt from guessing exactly what he had thought of them.

The white fox shook his head slowly. "…No. Lien-Da and I are nothing like them. We know how you feel. Angry…hateful…betrayed. Itsuki and Fakir screwed us too and this is why we need you, Shadow. We need help to restore G.U.N. and Tech City to once it was."

As Shadow was lost in thought, he felt Lien-Da's hand fall onto his shoulder. He turned to her in sympathy, "When I got here, I said I would do what I must and that's to help this military and the city get to its feet again."

A warm smile slowly formed on Lien-Da's lips as she heard Shadow's reply. "Thank you, Shadow…"

Gin smiled warmly at the two and was relieved to know that Shadow was still willing to continue to work by their side.

**Author's Note: Soooo I can't help there is a going to be some slight confusions going on. lol! First off, yes Itsuki and Fakir are being mentioned in this story. However, the events taken place in the stories they were featured in have changed. Such as Rouge and Shadow being alive and Kayla will not be mentioned as this specific story is being told by a whole another prospective. And yes this is a sequel for Longing if any of you didn't guess it already. If you got any questions, you can always shoot me a message!**

**In the Next Chapter...**

**Lien-Da: Come on, Shadow! I can't wait to show you around!**

**Shadow: I had no idea so many soldiers admired Lien-Da...**

**Gin: What can I say? She has a way with communicating with all of the soldiers here.**

**Lien-Da: I have a feeling your girlfriend doesn't like me very much...**


	9. Chapter 9

**CHAPTER 9**

**EXCURSION**

"Oh come on, Gin!" Lien-Da had begged. "It'll be fun!"

Shadow, Gin, and Lien-Da we're standing outside of Gin's office in a huge hallway.

Gin had his back against the cold concrete walls and had placed his hand up. "I told you, Lien-Da. I'm just far too busy right now." He turned to Shadow with a sympathetic look. "I'm sorry Shadow, but it looks like Lien-Da will just have to show you around for now."

Shadow thought with Gin being the first lieutenant he had far more important responsibilities to attend to. "It's all right. I understand."

The three of them were interrupted when they heard a shy and calming feminine voice.

"Lieutenant Gin?"

They turned and caught sight of a brown cat woman with blonde hair that was at shoulder length. She looked extremely young. She couldn't be no older than eighteen. She wore huge round glasses on her face, a fitted white long sleeve collared shirt, blue skinny jeans, and black sneakers.

The young woman had a nervous look on her face as she was in the presence of the three lieutenants. For some reason, it was hard for her to look Gin in the eyes. "I have those reports you had wanted."

The white fox crossed his arms, "Well, it's about time you got here, Sierra. I'm already running late as it is." He watched her walk over to him and hand him a clipboard full of papers.

"My apologies, Lieutenant Gin…" she spoke in a low and soft voice. Her eyes wandered over to the black hedgehog standing next to him. Just by the sight of him, she felt like she couldn't take her eyes away from him.

Gin noticed her constant staring at Shadow. "Sierra?" He called. "You went to the meeting earlier didn't you?"

She made a small nod, "Of course."

"Well? Don't be rude! Show your new third lieutenant some respect!"

"I'm so sorry!" Flustered by Gin's outburst, she quickly stood in front of the hedgehog and bowed her head towards him. "Good morning, Lieutenant Shadow. I look forward to working with you!"

Shadow couldn't help but to notice Gin's crude behavior towards the woman. He snapped out of his thoughts and focused his attention back to the brown cat woman. "It's a pleasure to meet you too."

Lien-Da flashed her eyes over to Gin and saw him giving her the same look.

Gin focused his attention back to Sierra. "Okay enough of this. Did you get my coffee?"

Sierra's heart skipped a beat before she could reply to him. "…I forgot it but please don't be mad! I'll get right on it, sir!"

"You had better", he growled. After when he watched her walk away from the group, Gin turned back to Lien-Da and Shadow and shook his head. "Damn teenagers", he murmured under his breath. "Anyway…"

Shadow watched as Gin pointed at the echidna woman.

"…Don't screw up on showing Shadow around."

She placed her hands on her hips. "I'm only going to show him around the facility! How am I going to screw that up?"

"Oh, you'll find some way knowing you…"

She arched an eyebrow at the fox, "Geez! Thanks for the support!" She spoke sarcastically. She turned from him, wrapped her arm around Shadow's and began to lead him down the hallway. "Let's get started, Shadow!"

"I'll catch up to you guys, later!" Gin watched as Lien-Da practically dragged the hedgehog down the hall. A sweat drop formed on the side of his head, 'Why does she intend to be so damn headstrong?'

While the two were walking together, Shadow had soon enough realized that Lien-Da's arm was still wrapped around his. It honestly made him feel quite uncomfortable. It almost looked like the two were practically holding hands. Before he could do or say anything, he saw her suddenly take her arm from his. He stopped in his tracks when Lien-Da had stood in front of him with a teasing look.

"Sorry about that. I just wanted to find every way possible to irritate Gin. Even if it means showing off in front of him."

He arched an eyebrow in confusion. He couldn't help but to think that maybe Lien-Da was only acting interested in him just to simply annoy Gin. He then had the thought that she maybe had a thing for Gin. He walked past her with a sly smile on his face. "Don't you think he was irritated enough?"

She gave him a confused look, "What do you mean?"

"That girl."

"Oh! You mean Sierra? She's Gin's personal assistant", she explained. "She's friendly and all but she's very shy and timid. I personally think she's adorable but Gin gets frustrated with her apparently."

"How old is she exactly?"

"She's eighteen. She's a college student and works here in her spare time."

"So she's only here to take orders from Gin?"

She could tell from the tone of his voice that he sounded completely disgusted with Sierra being Gin's assistant. "I know…Gin pretty much treats her like shit and it's not right. But she's so shy. She needs to stand up for herself you know?" She decided to drop the subject about Sierra and Gin. "Anyway, let's get this tour started…"

The two kept walking until they walked into a huge room that was filled with tanks, strange weapons, and combat robots The room had looked like a giant laboratory filled with war machines. Soldiers and other members of the military staff were hard at work on the machines.

Lien-Da continued to lead Shadow throughout the room. "This is where we make our one of a kind combat equipment."

Shadow looked around the room in interest. He couldn't believe he was actually standing in the room where they made their very own weapons. He was quite impressed, "Interesting…" He suddenly noticed a lot of the workers and soldiers praising and talking to Lien-Da.

"How are you, Miss Lien-Da?"

"You're radiant as always, lieutenant!"

She was not only getting praised by men but by a few women as well. A few of the workers had talked to him as well but he was really shocked to find that Lien-Da was adored by quite a lot of her co workers. He saw how she laughed and smiled warmly towards the soldiers and he could see why she was so loved by them. Her gentle smile was calming and radiant.

While everyone gathered around Shadow and Lien-Da, a male yellow lion who seemed to be in his early twenties with brown hair had sent a cold glare towards the two lieutenants.

Much later after when Lien-Da was done showing Shadow all around the military facility, the two were standing beside each other outside of the facility on a small balcony. They were watching the sun set while a warm breeze from the wind traveled the air.

Shadow turned to Lien-Da who leaned against the railing of the balcony while she smoked a cigarette. "I didn't know you smoked."

She slowly turned to him and gave him a sly smile as she glanced at the cigarette in his mouth. "There's a lot you don't know about me…"

He made a nod and leaned against the railing of the balcony as well while he blew out some of the cigarette smoke. "Well, we're working together now. Looks like I'll have to get to know you."

She made a small smile and blew some smoke from her mouth, "Likewise, Lieutenant Shadow."

Shadow had then decided to bring up more about Sierra. "So, what makes Gin so special that he has his own personal assistant?"

A small giggle escaped her, "Because he's stuck up and a total douchebag."

By the tone of her voice, he knew that she was only joking. "So I have to walk around with a stick up my ass to get my own assistant?"

As she flicked her cigarette onto the concrete ground, she giggled softly towards his remark. "I guess that explains why I don't have one either then."

He had to admit to himself, Lien-Da seemed no where close to being the slight bit cruel to anyone. She was way too nice.

"Well, Gin is the first lieutenant. He's the one who calls most of the shots. Not me."

So now things were beginning to make sense. He had a feeling that Gin was the main one who controlled G.U.N. However he still had a bad feeling about him. Something about him wasn't right.

"You and I basically have to make sure everything is in order and nothing gets thrown out of place."

He tossed his cigarette to the ground. "I see…" He then saw her about to turn and walk away.

"We should start heading back inside. I still have some things I want to show you…"

His eyes widened as he saw her about to trip and fall.

Before she could try to catch herself, she suddenly found herself in the arms of the black hedgehog. A deep red blush formed on her face as the two stared into each other's eyes.

It took a minute but he had finally snapped out of his thoughts and helped her to her feet.

She slowly pulled her body from his and gave him a gentle smile. "My hero", she spoke with a soft giggle.

He tried not to show any signs of him blushing as well but just having that thought of him holding her close to him like that kept repeating in his head over and over. "…You need to be more careful. Are you all right?"

"Yeah", she spoke as she stood beside him. "I guess I just lost my footing…thank you."

He still found it hard to look her in the eye after all of that had happened, "It's no problem."

"At first I wasn't sure about you, Shadow…"

He slowly turned to her in confusion.

"I thought you didn't give a damn about this facility but when I heard your speech…it touched me…"

His heart raced when he saw her reach out to him and touch his hand gently.

"I'm so happy you decided to give Gin and I a chance to prove that we're good people. I'm glad you gave this military a chance. You won't regret this Shadow, I swear."

He saw her body getting closer and closer to his.

"I know you probably think I'm interested in Gin but I'm not. He's not really my type. He's too old for one thing. I like guys who are down to earth. Someone like you…"

His heart raced as she leaned closer and closer until her lips had met his.

When he felt her lips on his, he wanted to return the kiss back. However, the image of Rouge was still in the back of his mind and he began to realize what was going on. He pulled away from her and gave her an unbelievable look. "…Lien-Da, I'm…sorry but I'm in love with Rouge."

She had a look of disappointment on her face at first but then made a small nod. She stepped away from him and turned from him in embarrassment. "My God…I'm so sorry, Shadow. I didn't mean…" She sighed heavily as her words trailed off.

He didn't know what to really say to her during that situation either. All this time, he had thought that she was really friendly. Well, now he knew for sure that she indeed had liked him in more than one way.

She finally had the courage to turn back to him. "I didn't mean to make things awkward for us. Let's just pretend this never happened okay?"

Still, he didn't know what to exactly say to her so he just made a small nod as he agreed that never speaking of it again would be best for both of them.

When they both heard footsteps approaching, they turned and saw a white male fox stepping out onto the balcony.

"There you two are." His eyes shifted over to Shadow's, "Shadow, I take it you enjoyed your tour with Lien-Da?"

Shadow glanced over to her and then back at Gin uneasily. "…Um, yeah."

"That's good to hear. We should head back inside. I wanted to go over some more things with you guys."

"Sure thing, Gin!" Lien-Da spoke before she walked back inside.

When Shadow saw that she had left, he stopped Gin before he followed her. "…She's something else isn't she?"

Gin turned to the hedgehog with a small smile. "Heh, yeah. Lien-Da's a real character."

"…She's admired by a lot of people here…"

"Well", Gin began, "She's really open and friendly. If you're a lieutenant and you have an attitude like that, you better believe everyone will bend over to kiss your ass." He chuckled a bit, "I guess that explains why I don't have a lot of fans like her."

When he saw Gin make his way back inside, he slowly followed behind him with still having the uneasy feeling about his situation with Lien-Da.

**In The Next Chapter...**

**Shadow: I don't believe this...**

**Rouge: I just don't want to lose you, Shadow...**

**Shadow: You're pissing me off with this jealousy thing!**

**Rouge: I don't trust her...**

**Shadow: You just don't trust me! And I'm getting sick of it!**


	10. Chapter 10

**CHAPTER 10**

**ASSUMPTIONS**

Much later that afternoon, Shadow decided to visit Rouge at her house after work. Rouge was in the kitchen making dinner. She looked up from her cooking when she saw Shadow walking into the kitchen. "So", she began. "How was your first day?"

He paused for a moment. He wanted to tell her that everything had went well for him. However, he couldn't get rid of the fact that he and Lien-Da had kissed He wanted to tell her that Lien-Da had kissed him but he knew how she had already felt about her and he didn't want to cause anymore tension than there already was. Besides, he had told her that he was in love with Rouge. In his eyes, he didn't do anything wrong. He decided to keep his mouth shut about it and pretend like it never happened. "It was fine", he spoke blankly.

She noticed that his answer was short and bland. She knew something exciting had happened to him. "Oh? Nothing interesting happened?"

He shook his head, "Not really. Everyone welcomed me and stuff. We just went over a lot of paperwork. It was pretty boring most of the day", he explained.

"Yeah? It sounds like you had a blast ", she added sarcastically.

"Heh, you bet."

Her eyes wandered over and she saw him place down a green pack of cigarettes and a gold pack of cigarettes on the counter. She arched an eyebrow at the sight of the gold pack and turned to Shadow with a puzzling look on her face. "I didn't know you smoked lights…"

His eyes caught sight of the gold pack of cigarettes as well. He took them off of the counter and held them in his hand. "Oh these? They're not mine. I'm holding them for Lien-Da."

Her heart skipped a beat as she heard the echidna woman's name. So many things raced through her mind. 'Why the hell does he have Lien-Da's cigarettes?' Her hands shook slightly as she started to become nervous. She cleared her voice to make sure she didn't sound upset. "Lien-Da's? You too are getting pretty close aren't you?"

He placed the cigarettes back in his coat pocket and shrugged his shoulders. He pulled out his cell phone and began texting to avoid looking at her while he had an uneasy expression. "Yeah she's pretty cool."

"…Why do you have her cigarettes?"

He knew after saying that, she figured that he and Lien-Da were doing something underhanded behind her back. "She wanted me to hold them for her."

"And she couldn't hold her own damn cigarettes?"

Now he could clearly tell that her jealousy was kicking in. "Calm down. She forgot them so I'm going to give them to her tomorrow."

It sounded like a reasonable enough excuse to let him off of the hook so she tried to forget about it. "…I see." She then saw him beginning to text on his phone again. She had noticed that he had rarely put his phone down since he had came over and she thought it was suspicious. She couldn't help but to get more and more curious about it. "You've barely put your phone down since you got here. Who are you texting anyway?"

He didn't look away from his phone as he replied to her. "…Lien-Da." He suddenly heard a slamming sound coming from her. He looked away from his phone and looked up at an angered Rouge.

"You have her fucking number?"

Just by the tone of her voice, he knew he was screwed. He just knew Rouge was going to fit when she found out that Lien-Da had given him her number. He had slowly became aggravated with her sudden change of attitude. She was clearly becoming jealous once again with Lien-Da. "Yes I do", he spoke as he began to explain to her. "We traded numbers. I even have Gin's. We all traded numbers in case something comes up."

She just knew he was texting her the entire time and all that time, the two couldn't be possibly talking about just work. "But you have been texting her the entire time!"

He shook his head as he disagreed with her. "I have been texting different people not just her. To be honest, she just sent me one message and she's just telling me to come in a little earlier tomorrow because Gin wanted to have a meet with us."

She wanted to believe him but she didn't. "…That's bullshit, Shadow."

He couldn't believe it. She didn't believe anything he just said and it hurt him. Lien-Da had kissed him and he turned her down because he didn't actually want to cheat on Rouge. At that point, he was glad he didn't mention anything about the kiss or else she'd flip out over that as well. He couldn't help but to become angry with her. "You don't fucking believe me? Fine then!"

She watched him walk over to her and practically slammed his phone in the palm of her hand.

"Look through my messages and you tell me what we've been talking about! If that fucking makes you feel better than do it! Right in front of me!"

As she held the phone in her hand, she couldn't help but to feel suddenly guilty for assuming that Shadow was cheating on her. After realizing how upset Shadow was with her, she immediately wanted to take back everything she had said to him. She sighed sadly and gave the phone back to Shadow. "Shadow, I'm…"

"No! Don't even say it! You know I'm getting really sick of your shit, Rouge! I thought you trusted me but you don't trust me at all!"

She saw him walking towards the door She knew he was about to leave. "Shadow, wait…"

He flung the door open and turned to her angrily. "I'll come back when you stop acting like a fucking jealous psycho bitch!"

Tears swelled in her eyes from his angry and hurtful words.

"That's right!" He spat, "I said it! And I'm not even drunk this time!"

Tears streamed down her face when she saw him angrily slam the door shut on his way out.

**In The Next Chapter...**

**Rouge: Shadow and I had a little disagreement...**

**Lien-Da: I'm sorry for what happened the other day...**

**Shadow: Just don't mention it...ever...**

**Gin: You ready for your first field mission, Shadow?**


	11. Chapter 11

**CHAPTER 11**

**ARISING TENSION**

The next morning at the Chaotix, the detectives were in the lobby getting ready for another long day of work.

Charmy hovered beside Vector who was standing near Tonya's desk. He saw that he and Tonya were organizing some paperwork together. He saw Espio helping them with the papers. The bee glanced around the lobby and noticed that there was no sign of Rouge. "Looks like Rouge is late again."

"Oh?" Vector spoke in an apathetic tone. "That's a surprise", he said sarcastically.

Espio had remembered that Shadow told him he would see Rouge that previous night. He snickered a bit, "Well Shadow did say he was going to see her last night. I suppose we can guess the reason why she's running late."

Tonya flashed her eyes over to him in annoyance. "Oh Es, stop being a perv."

Just hearing Shadow's name made Vector think about the hedgehog. "Shadow huh? Things sure are different without him around here."

"Yeah", Charmy added. "I miss Captain Shadow too…"

"I'm sure he's doing fine and enjoying his new job", Tonya spoke.

Vector couldn't hide the fact that he missed Shadow but at the same time, he was proud of him.

When everyone heard the door open and close, they turned to find Rouge walking towards the group. Judging by her expression, she seemed upset.

"Rouge, you're late", Vector spoke.

"I know", the bat replied sadly. "I'm sorry, Vector."

Tonya noticed how saddened she looked and had wondered what was bothering her. "Hey Rouge, you doing okay? You look like something's bugging you."

She hesitated at first. She didn't want to say what had happened between her and Shadow. She decided to speak of it enough to make her feel somewhat better. "It's just me and Shadow…we got into a little disagreement last night."

This wasn't a big surprise to Tonya. She knew that Rouge and Shadow had always gotten into disagreements with each other. Even before two had started dating. However, the two had always made up with each other sometimes all within the same week. "Are you guys okay?" She asked.

Her ears flopped down as she looked down to the floor in sadness. "He texted me back later and said he was sorry for blowing up on me. Even though we kinda made up, he's being short with me and acting pretty distant."

"Sounds to me that Shadow is still a little heated", Espio spoke. "Just give him some space and he'll cool off."

Rouge made a small nod. She agreed that maybe he did need some time to himself. She just hoped that everything would be okay with them again.

Meanwhile at the G.U.N. facility, Gin, Lien-Da, and Shadow were standing out in the hallway outside of the conference room. Gin had just got done going over some things during his meet with them.

"Thanks for coming in a little early, guys", Gin spoke. "There was just a lot more crap I had to go over before the day started."

"It's no problem", Shadow spoke.

"I gotta go check up on some things. I'll catch you guys later."

They both made a nod and watched as he began walking down the hallway.

Afterwards, Lien-Da turned to Shadow who seemed like he had a lot on his mind. She figured that maybe he was upset with her for what she had done yesterday. She bit her lip lightly as she felt guilty for her actions towards him. "Shadow?"

The hedgehog shifted his eyes over to her as he began to give her his full attention.

"I just wanted to apologize for what happened yesterday…"

He sighed heavily and took his eyes away from her. He could barely even look and talk to her at the same time. After everything that happened between them, things just seemed awkward. Lien-Da had obviously liked him and now that he didn't return his feelings for her, it just threw a lot of tension into their friendship. "Just don't mention it…ever…"

She made a small nod as she agreed with him that keeping it a secret was the best thing to do. She suddenly saw him give her a gold colored pack of cigarettes.

"…You forgot those yesterday."

"Oh that's right." When she placed the cigarettes in her coat pocket, she studied Shadow's expression and it seemed like he had gotten more upset. She had wondered if he was still thinking about the kiss the two had shared the previous day. She couldn't shake the feeling that he probably hated her. "…Are you okay, Shadow? You seem pretty upset…"

He let out a frustrated sigh. He wasn't sure if he wanted to tell her the real reason why he was upset. The argument he and Rouge had from yesterday was still in the back of his mind. He had later apologized to her for acting so hurtful towards her, but he just decided to keep his distance from her. He couldn't deny that he still felt guilty about the kiss he and Lien-Da shared. Even though, he knew it wasn't his fault, he felt uncomfortable being around Rouge without her knowing anything that happened. "I don't really want to talk about it…"

She made a small nod as a way of letting him know that she had respected the fact that he didn't want to discuss his personal problems. "I understand…but I want you to know that I'm here for you if you ever want to talk."

"…Thank you."

The two were suddenly interrupted when a male yellow lion wearing a G.U.N. solider uniform approached them.

The lion appeared to be in his early twenties and the goggles around his neck made him seem like he worked in the weapons department of the facility. He saluted at the two and turned to Lien-Da. "Good morning, Lieutenant Lien-Da."

She gave him the same salute in return. "Good morning, Trevor. How are you?"

"I'm fine. Thank you, ma'am."

She made a small nod, "That's good." She turned to Shadow, "Shadow, this is Trevor. He works with the weaponry department."

Shadow made a small nod at the lion. "Nice to meet you."

"And you as well, Lieutenant Shadow." He focused his attention back to Lien-Da. "Lieutenant Lien-Da, there's an emergency at hand."

"Yes we know", Gin had spoke as he approached the group.

Shadow, Trevor, and Lien-Da turned to Gin who had Sierra standing by his side.

The brown cat woman gave the lion a warm smile, "Good morning, Trevor."

Trevor seemed like he was lost in a daze as he could barely take his eyes off of her. "G-Good morning, Sierra…"

The white fox looked over to the hedgehog. "Say, Shadow? You think you're ready for some action?

The hedgehog formed a small smirk towards the fox. "Anything is better than pushing paper all day."

"What's going on, Gin?" Lien-Da asked.

"We're needed down in the west district of the city." He looked over at Trevor. "Trevor, assemble the bomb squad immediately."

The lion took his mind off of Sierra and made a nod. He saluted towards him. "Yes, sir!"

When he left, Gin turned to Lien-Da and Shadow once more. "Let's move out, guys! I'll explain the situation on the way."

When Gin told Trevor to get together a group of bomb specialists, Shadow knew right then that the mission they were about to take on would be a dangerous one.

**In The Next Chapter...**

**Gin: Watch your back, everyone!**

**Trevor: I don't think I can do this...**

**Shadow: Of course you can! Don't give up!**

**Lien-Da: They won't get away!**

**Gin: Lien-Da, look out!**

**Lien-Da: Shadow, no!**


	12. Chapter 12

**CHAPTER 12**

**DETERMINATION**

Shadow, Gin, and Lien-Da were sitting across from each other while they rode in the back of a military truck.

Trevor was driving the truck. He had looked back from time to time to see what they were all discussing.

Shadow and Lien-Da listened while Gin explained the dangerous mission to them.

"Okay, guys. Listen up", Gin had began. "It appears we have an armed psychopath who's attempting to blow up an orphanage."

Lien-Da gasped and placed her hand over her mouth in shock. "My God…how awful!"

The fox made a nod as he agreed with her. "We can't figure out the reason why they would want to do this. Not only that but they have hostages inside of the building. This nut job is unpredictable. If we don't approach the situation carefully, he could possibly blow that place and everyone in it sky high."

Shadow and Lien-Da listened to the details of their mission carefully.

"The cops can't get close. A few officers have already been shot because of reckless acting. This entire mission is in our hands now." His eyes shifted over to Shadow. "Shadow, you control the power of Chaos. You're also a pro at controlling time and space am I right?"

The black hedgehog crossed his arms and made a small nod. "You're correct."

He formed a smirk, "Good. So here's the plan…"

When they got to the orphanage, the building was surrounded by police and huge crowds of concerned citizens. When Shadow, Lien-Da, and Gin got out of the truck, they studied the building. The building was old and appeared to have been around for a long time. It was pretty big for an orphanage. It had to have at least three floors. Maybe more than that.

Gin had approached one of the police officers. "We're here. This is G.U.N. business now." He turned to Shadow who had Trevor standing by his side. "You're on, Shadow."

The hedgehog made a nod and spun around to Trevor. "You ready?"

The lion nodded, "Yes, sir!"

"Chaos Control!"

Gin and Lien-Da watched as Shadow and Trevor vanish within a flash of green light.

"He's amazing. Isn't he, Gin?" Lien-Da spoke in surprise.

He nodded as he agreed with her. "…Yeah."

Trevor found himself standing beside Shadow while the two were inside of the building. The room they were in was kind of dark, and had holes and cracks in the floors and walls. He figured it was an old and unused room. He suddenly heard a loud clicking sound coming from behind them.

"Well, well what do we have here? Dogs of the military?"

When he and Shadow spun around, they turned to a white male mouse man who appeared to be in his late thirties who was dressed in all black.

Shadow caught sight of two little girls who had a gun pointed at them.

Tears streamed down their faces while they sobbed.

Shadow gave the man a cold glare. "Let them go", he demanded.

The man made an evil smile towards the two, "Oh I'll let them go…"

Trevor's heart raced when he saw him take out a small hand held remote control and press a button on it. He then saw him shove both of the frightened girls at them.

"I'm gonna let it all go…in a bang!"

The lion gave the man a hateful glare when he realized that he had activated the bomb he had set within the orphanage. "Why are you doing this?"

"If I told you, it wouldn't matter. We'd all be dead in the end anyway."

It was certain that this man was obviously psychotic and crazy. He needed to be stopped. Before Trevor could approach him, Shadow had held him back.

"I'll take care of them. You find that bomb. Got it?"

With hesitation at first, he made a nod and started to search around the room for the bomb.

The man let out an amused chuckle, "Good luck! You'll never find that bomb!" Before he could even blink an eye, he was suddenly struck in the stomach by a powerful punch from the hedgehog.

"Why don't you worry about yourself, asshole!"

While everyone was waiting outside of the building, Gin bit his lip as he anxiously waited to hear anything from Shadow or Trevor. His eyes widened when he saw a male white mouse man being tossed out one of the two story windows.

Everyone watched as he fell to the ground with glass falling behind him.

Before he had the chance to get to his feet, police officers surrounded him and took his body off of the ground.

"What the?" When Gin saw a flash of green light appear at the corner of his eye, he spun around to face Shadow who had the two frightened little girls with him. "Shadow!"

The two crying girls ran over to Lien-Da for comfort.

Shadow turned to Gin. "I have to go back. Trevor's still in there with the bomb."

A worried look had formed on Lien-Da's face. "What? Trevor's still inside?"

"I'll be back."

Before they could say anything else, Shadow had once again vanished.

Trevor scurried around the huge and seemingly empty room. Sweat poured from his head as he tried to find the bomb. "Come on damn it!" He spoke in a frustrated tone, "Where is it?" When he paused for a moment, he heard a faint ticking sound near him. He followed where the sound was coming from. He stopped in the middle of the floor where he heard the ticking getting louder and louder. He looked around and didn't see any obvious places where it could be at. When he took a step forward, he noticed that a piece of wood on the wooden floorboard under him was a little weak. 'It couldn't be…' He kneeled down to the floor and quickly ripped apart the weakened piece of wood from the floorboard. His heart skipped a beat when he saw a small, black, metal object with a two minute timer on it hiding under the floorboard. "…Oh fuck…"

Before he could touch the bomb, Shadow had appeared behind him.

"Did you find it?"

He made a small nod, "Yeah but it'll go in two minutes if we don't act quickly."

Shadow saw him place his goggles over his eyes and take out a pair of red pliers. "You think you can defuse it?"

The lion shrugged his shoulders uneasily, "I've done a few but most of them were just practice."

The hedgehog arched an eyebrow at him, "So you mean to tell me you're not a bomb expert?"

His eyes shifted towards the timer that had went under a minute. "Who the hell ever told you I was an expert?" He studied the wires on the bomb. There were three wires. One was red, blue, and green. His hand shook as he became nervous. He had to admit to himself that he wasn't quite sure which one to cut. He shut his eyes and found it hard to swallow. "…I-I don't think I can do this…"

"Yes you can!"

The lion slowly spun around to the hopeful hedgehog.

"I know you can do this! I won't leave your side! I promise…"

After hearing Shadow giving him so much support, he couldn't help but to feel like he had more strength and will power to attempt to defuse the bomb. "…Lieutenant Shadow…" He made a small nod towards him and turned back to the bomb that now underwent thirty seconds. He held the pliers up at the red wire and then at the green wire. He shut his eyes tightly and quickly cut the green wire. A few moments passed before he cracked open his eyes. He was alive. He and Shadow were still alive. He looked down at the timer of the bomb that had stopped at two seconds. He let out a sigh of relief at the sight of it. When he felt Shadow's hand being placed on his shoulder, he turned to him with a wide smile.

"I told you, you could do it."

He nodded and continued to smile warmly at the black hedgehog.

After when Shadow and Trevor had made it out of the orphanage, they reported their situation to Gin and Lien-Da.

Gin smiled warmly at the two as he was pleased to hear how everything went for them. "Good job, guys." He turned to Trevor with a proud look on his face. "And I'm really proud of you, Trevor." He made a salute towards him, "Good work, soldier!"

Trevor felt like Gin had never admired him or his work until now, and he couldn't help but to feel more proud of himself. He gave him the same salute back, "Thank you, sir!"

While everyone had gathered around Shadow and Trevor, the white mouse man used the opportunity to try to escape. He snatched a handgun out from a police officer's holster and hit him hard in the face with the end of the gun to knock him down. He then pointed the gun at the rest of the police officers and G.U.N. soldiers as he started to run off. "Get back! All of you!"

Trevor's mouth hung open as he saw the man running away. "He's getting away!"

Lien-Da had taken out a long black whip from her belt. "Not on my watch!" She lashed the whip out towards him.

The whip wrapped around his legs causing him to fall to the ground.

"Good work, Lien-Da!" Gin spoke.

While she was getting praised for her work, Shadow's jaw dropped when he saw the man pointing the handgun towards her back while she wasn't looking.

"…Fucking bitch…" He said in a weak voice before he pulled the trigger.

"Lien-Da!" Shadow shouted.

When she heard Shadow's alarmed voice, she quickly spun around only to see Shadow shoving her out of the way. She fell to the ground in confusion. When she turned, she saw Shadow kneeling to the ground while holding his bleeding arm. Her face became filled with shock as she stared at the wounded hedgehog. "Shadow, no!"

Gin ran up to the armed man, kicked the gun from his hand and sent a powerful kick to his side. "You son of a bitch!"

While police officers and soldiers surrounded him, Lien-Da got off of the ground and kneeled next to Shadow in worry. "Shadow, are you okay?"

He looked up at her with a small smile letting her know that he was okay. "I'll be fine. It's just a bullet wound."

"But, sir!" Trevor exclaimed, "You're bleeding!"

He in all honesty had gotten shot plenty of times before. The gunshot still hurt but he knew it would take more than that to take him completely down. "I said I'm fine. Stop worrying."

The group looked up at Gin who approached them. "Our job is done here. Let's get the fuck out of his hellhole."

**In The Next Chapter...**

**Lien-Da: Let's make this interesting...**

**Shadow: A game?**

**Lien-Da: Did you want to talk about what was bothering you earlier?**

**Shadow:...It's nothing...**

**Lien-Da: I've never had anyone take a bullet for me before...**

**Shadow:...Lien-Da...**


	13. Chapter 13

**CHAPTER 13**

**SWEET HAVEN**

Much later that afternoon after the mission, everyone was back at the facility trying to rest and recuperate from the excitement from earlier.

Shadow was in his office sitting at his desk. He was bandaging his arm from the gunshot wound from the mission. He looked away from his halfway bandaged arm and looked up at a picture that was hung on his wall. He stared at the photo that showed him standing next to the Chaotix team. He couldn't help but to form a small smile as he looked at the photo. "No matter how hard I try. I just can't break old habits. I'm always getting shot some kind of way…" He suddenly heard a light knock on his door. He turned and saw a red echidna woman coming into the office.

"Knock knock! You think I can come in?"

He shrugged his shoulders slightly, "Why not? You already made your way in didn't you?"

When she came in, she closed the door behind her gently and turned to the hedgehog. "I just came to see how you're doing."

He continued to wrap his arm in gauze, "I'm just peachy", he spoke in a sarcastic voice.

She arched an eyebrow when she saw that he was struggling a bit with bandaging his arm. She made a small giggle and approached him. "Here. Let me help you."

He had stopped what he was doing when he saw her take the roll of gauze from his hand and sit in front of him on his desk. He watched her beginning to help him bandage his arm. "…Thank you…"

"Does it hurt?"

He shook his head slightly. "I've had worse than this. This right here ain't shit."

She giggled softly from his comment, "Oh? Acting cocky I see." A sly smile formed on her lips while she continued to bandage his arm. "…Let's make this fun."

The hedgehog arched an eyebrow towards her in curiosity.

"I know plenty enough about you but you don't know much about me. So, let's play a game. Twenty questions?"

He paused for a moment. This was all too weird to him. What was she up to? Was she trying to dig some information about him to ruin him or even perhaps the Chaotix? He became cautious but tried not to make it seem too obvious. "…Fine. You start."

"Okay. Let's start something simple…Oh! Where did you grow up?"

"…East district of Tech City", he answered simply.

"Oh? So you've been living in Tech City all your life? Interesting…"

"What about you?"

"…Well to be technical, I was raised on Angel Island but I moved to Tech City much later."

He made a small smirk, "So I thought right…"

She paused from the bandaging and gave the hedgehog a puzzled look. "Huh?"

"You did come from Angel Island."

"Oh?" She began to stoked her fingers through her red dreadlocks. "Is it because I'm an echidna?"

"Well", he began, "There really aren't many echidnas roaming around in Tech City. It's just pretty rare."

"Well to be honest, there really isn't much for me over there. That's why I came here. More opportunities and open doors. Like becoming a G.U.N. lieutenant", she spoke with a smile. She continued to finish bandaging his arm, "So how old are you?"

He paused and looked up at her with a smirk. "How old do you think I am?"

She studied his appearance and paused as she thought about how old he really looked to her. "Hmm…twenty-four?"

"Heh, you're close."

"…Twenty-five?"

"Bingo."

"Oooh I'm good!" She snickered.

"…What about you?"

"How old do I look?" When she looked up at him, she saw him studying her appearance so he could guess her age.

"…Twenty-three?"

"Nope! I'm twenty-one!"

He arched an eyebrow at her. "…You're a fucking liar." He heard a soft giggle coming from her.

"Fine…you got me. I'm twenty-eight."

He placed a finger to his chin. To him, she didn't look her age at all. "You look very young for your age."

A light blush formed on her face. "Thanks. I get that quite a lot." When she was done bandaging his arm, she looked up at him with a warm smile. "So", she began. "Did you want to talk about what was bothering you earlier?"

He paused and hesitated once again as he debated if he wanted to tell her. Even though it was kind of relating to her being partially the problem. He figured since they were being somewhat open to each other at the moment, he figured it would be okay to say enough to let her in on his situation with Rouge. "…Well", he began, "It's just…Rouge…"

She paused at the name and tried to remember who he was speaking of. "Oh! Your girlfriend?"

He made a nod, "Yeah."

"What's wrong? You guys doing okay?"

He shook his head slightly, "…Not exactly."

She gave him a sympathetic look and listened to him starting to explain his situation.

"We got into a heated argument yesterday and to make things short, it turns out she doesn't trust me around other girls…not one bit."

She had to admit to herself that she wanted to smirk. The night she had met Rouge, she knew that she had gotten extremely jealous when she started talking to Shadow. To see his girlfriend jealous of her, made her feel good. "…I see…"

"It just…makes me so fucking mad! I'm trying to be a good boyfriend and she's putting me in the same category as every other typical guy. She thinks I'll fucking cheat on her and I'm not like that! I'm nothing like that…and it just hurts that she thinks of me like that…"

"You wanna know what I think, Shadow? I think she doesn't see a good guy when she has one. She's taking you for granted and she shouldn't…" She gently placed her hand over his while he had his set on the arm of the desk chair. "You're such a good man, Shadow and it sucks she doesn't appreciate anything you do."

His eyes widened when he saw her getting off of the desk and sat on his lap.

She ran her fingers gently through the bandage that was wrapped around his arm. "I notice all of the hard work you do and you deserve recognition…"

He felt her gently grinding herself over his lower body.

"No man has ever taken a bullet for me before…" She spoke softly.

He had to admit he was struggling trying to fight back his uprising erection. "…Lien-Da..."

"Just think about it, Shadow. If there's no trust within a relationship then why have one in the first place?"

He thought that she had made a fine point. If Rouge didn't trust him then why did the two even bother dating? He snapped out of his thoughts when she had wrapped her arms around his neck.

"You saved my life and I want to give you all of my trust." She leaned closer to him until her lips had met his.

Shadow found himself locked in a passionate kiss with her. As her tongue danced with his, he became aware with what was happening. This was the second time they kissed but this time felt different. This time, he didn't pull away. This time, he returned the kiss. The same question kept coming to his mind as he kissed her. 'What the hell am I doing?' He was still with Rouge so why was he kissing Lien-Da? He knew what they were doing was wrong but something deep down was telling him to don't stop.

She slowly took her lips from his and whispered to him seductively. "Here's another question for you…"

He gave her a confused look as he didn't know they were still both playing their game.

"…How bad do you want me?"

Shadow's heart raced as he stared into her light blue eyes. One part of him knew right then, he was going to make one of the biggest mistakes of his life, but another part of him was too full of anger to think about the consequences. That part of him just wanted to secretly get back at Rouge for her not trusting him.

She let out a small moan when she felt his hands roughly grabbing her butt. She was suddenly pulled into another passionate kiss with him.

He took his lips from hers and stroked his fingers through her red hair. "Lock the door and I'll show you…"

**In The Next Chapter...**

**Shadow: I know I'm making a mistake but...  
**

**Lien-Da: You don't deserve to put with that kind of crap from someone who doesn't trust you.**

**Shadow: I'm just getting sick of it...**

**Lien-Da: It's just best to forget her**

**Shadow:...**


	14. Chapter 14

**CHAPTER 14**

**ON AN IMPULSE**

Shadow watched as Lien-Da gently locked the door to his office. He saw her turn to him with a seductive look on her face. His heart raced when she began to slowly walk over to him and took off her black and purple trench coat. When he saw her coat hit the floor, his conscience blew up in his mind. 'I know this isn't right of me to do but…' His thoughts trailed off when he saw her sit on his lap. He then felt her soft lips upon his. While they kissed, she started to peel off his trench coat.

She slowly took her lips from his and gently ran her fingers down his chest while undoing a few buttons to his white collared shirt. "I'm going to make you forget all about your problems", she spoke in a soft voice.

He felt her fingers slowly making their way down to his belt. The two shared another passionate kiss while she unbuckled his belt. He then saw her kneeling on the floor and getting down on her knees in front of him. He felt the buttons to his pants being undone and his hardening member being taken out. A small moan escaped him when he felt her mouth being placed over his member.

When she felt his fingers stroking through her hair, she could tell that he was enjoying it. It warmed her to know that he was enjoying it. She began to go deeper and sucked harder. She took her hands and stroked his shaft rapidly when she started to playfully lick the tip of his hard manhood.

He could tell from her actions that she was having a good time just simply playing with his erect member. He didn't know how much longer he could take it. The teasing she was doing was really turning him on.

Before she could continue, she saw him pulling away from his member and gave her a small peck on the lips. She saw him then standing out of his chair and set her body on his desk while knocking a few things off of it as well.

He kissed her lips and slowly made his way to her neck.

She felt his hands traveling around her body. A small moan escaped her as he kissed her neck softly. She heard the zipper to her bodysuit being undone.

He peeled her bodysuit off of her which revealed her huge, soft, and perky breasts. She bit her lip lightly when she felt the nibbling on her neck turn into biting. She pulled his body closer to hers, "Oh, Shadow! Bite me harder", she begged.

He whispered to her softly before he fulfilled her desire. "You're a kinky girl aren't you?"

She giggled softly, "What if I am?" She felt his teeth sinking deeper into her neck. Her moans grew louder as he bit her. "I love it when you bite me."

"Oh you do?" He caressed her thigh gently until his fingers touched the whip that was in the holster on her belt. "You think we could play around with your little toy?"

She saw him holding the whip in front of her face. An excited feeling had came over her. "So what do you plan on doing with that?"

He stroked the end of the whip gently across her bare back. "Why don't you bend over for me and find out?"

She positioned her body over the desk and felt the rest of her bodysuit fall off of her body and hit the floor. She felt his finger lightly stroke her back.

"Let me know if I'm being too rough with you."

A small smile formed on her lips. It made her feel good to know that he had cared for her. "I will, hun." She winced when she felt a slight sting on her back. A groan had escaped her when she felt it again. Her fingertips clenched the desk when he did it once again. She bit her lip as she became more excited from the pain she was receiving from him.

From her groaning, he had thought that he was being too much for her. "…Am I being too rough?"

"No", she panted. "It feels good." She heard him set the whip down on the desk beside her.

"I can be a little more gentle if you want", he said as his hands caressed her butt.

A pleasurable moan escaped her as she felt his hands stroking her entrance gently. "Oh, Shadow…"

An evil smirk formed on his face as he stroked his fingers against her even more.

"You like that?"

"Like it? I love it." She got off of the desk and turned to him. She sat down on the desk in front of him and kissed him.

As the two kissed, she felt his fingers easing their way into her wet opening. She moaned slightly as he began to slowly slip his fingers in and out of her opening. She took her lips from his and caressed his cheek. "You're getting me so wet."

"Heh, I can tell", he spoke as his fingers went faster.

"Shadow", she spoke in an aroused tone. She pulled him closer to her, "I can't take it anymore. I want you to fuck me."

He looked into her light blue eyes and he had to admit that when he looked at her, he still couldn't get the image of Rouge from the back of his mind. He asked himself was he really going to do this? All that he knew was that he was angry and he was willing to do anything to make his problems fade even if it was just for a moment. He kissed her forehead and made her wrap her legs around his waist. "I hope you're ready for me."

She wrapped her arms around him and winced as she felt his long and hard length slowly penetrating her. A small gasp escaped her as he shoved himself deeper inside her. "Oh my God", she spoke in an aroused tone. "You feel so good." Her fingertips clenched his shoulders as he began to thrust himself in and out of her drenched opening.

He shoved himself deeper and went faster.

She cried in ecstasy while he went faster and faster. Before she thought she couldn't take anymore, she watched him take himself out of her.

"Bend over", was the only thing he had said to her.

She did what he had wanted and turned her back to him. She felt him positioning her body. In no time, she could feel him placing himself back inside of her, but this time it was from behind.

He had one hand set on her lower back and the other holding both of her hands behind her back.

Her moans had gotten louder when he went harder and faster.

He noticed her moans getting louder and hushed her. "Be quieter."

After he had reminded her how loud she was becoming, she bit her lip and had hoped no one had already heard her.

At that moment, Shadow had suddenly realized how long the two have been in his office. If they had spent any more time in the there together, Gin would probably end up getting suspicious and wonder where he and Lien-Da were. He decided it was best to end their session together.

When she noticed his thrusts getting harder and faster, she figured he was getting ready to end their time together.

He gripped his hands around her waist, "I'm going to come." He paused when he saw her turning back to him.

She wrapped her legs around his body and winced as he placed himself back in her throbbing opening. She held him close to her and smiled warmly. "Come inside of me."

He paused for a moment after when she had said that to him. By the way she had said it, it sounded like she had really trusted him. He embraced her tightly and started to thrust himself in and out of her once again.

Lien-Da suddenly cried out in orgasm when she felt an intense sensation fill up inside of her. Afterwards, she practically collapsed onto the desk in exhaustion. Her sweaty chest heaved heavily as she tried to catch her breath from all of the excitement. She stroked her fingers through her wet hair and looked at Shadow who sat back down in his desk chair trying to catch his breath as well. She sat her body up from the desk and made a small smile. "So", she pointed at her black bodysuit that was set on the floor near him. "You should hand me my clothes before Gin starts looking for me."

**In The Next Chapter...**

**Tonya: So you and Shadow made up?**

**Rouge: We haven't seen each other in days...**

**Shadow: ...It only happened once...**

**Rouge: What are you talking about?**

**Shadow:...Something happened between me and Lien-Da...**


	15. Chapter 15

**CHAPTER 15**

**AT FAULT**

The next day at the Chaotix, Tonya was sitting at her desk typing on her computer until she saw Rouge walk into the lobby. She arched an eyebrow when she saw her making a small smile while she texted on her cell phone. Judging by her happy expression, she figured she was talking to Shadow. "I know that face", she spoke with a sly smile. "You and Shadow made up."

Rouge took her eyes away from her phone and approached her. "Well, ever since our little spat, Shadow has been talking to me but he's been distant. I was starting to worry about us…but he just sent me a text saying he wanted to meet up with me and just talk."

"Talk?" Tonya repeated blankly. "Aw shit…"

The bat woman gave her a puzzled look. "…What?"

She looked away from her computer and gave Rouge her full attention. "Well, when a guy tells a girl he wants to talk, it usually ends up with him breaking up with her or vice versa."

Rouge couldn't imagine Shadow doing anything like that at all. She laughed a bit, "Tonya, please! It's me and Shadow remember? He and I always get into fights and we eventually make up. Like Espio said before, Shadow just needed to cool off a bit and now he's ready to get things straight with me."

Tonya crossed her arms and continued to give her a worried look.

"Shadow and I have been through this before. Why would this time be any different?"

She made a nod as she wanted to believe that everything would be okay for her and Shadow. "Okay if you say so." She then saw her gather her things within in the lobby. "Um…are you going somewhere?"

"Yeah", she replied. "Vector gave me the okay to leave early today."

"Oh wow! I wish I could leave early to go see my boyfriend", she spoke sarcastically.

She pointed down the hallway. "Espio's just down the hall."

She gave Rouge a disgusted look. "That's not funny."

Rouge couldn't help but to giggle as she teased her. "You really need to give that guy a chance, Ton. You never know. He could be the one."

She made a sarcastic laugh. "Yeah right!"

Rouge giggled softly as she walked over to the door. "See ya tomorrow, Ton!"

Tonya watched as she left the building. Afterwards, she resumed typing on her computer. "I guess I'll never understand relationships", she murmured softly.

Later on, Rouge was at her house getting ready for Shadow to arrive. She sat in a chair at her kitchen table while she sipped on a glass of water. She had to admit that she was feeling uneasy. The two haven't seen each other since their argument and that was days ago. However, she had a hopeful feeling that everything would go back to the way things were after her talk with him. She had suddenly heard a knock on her door. Her heart raced as she knew it could only be Shadow. She got up from her chair, walked over to the door, and opened it. There was a long pause as she gave the hedgehog a relieved expression.

Before he could say or do anything, he was embraced lovingly by her.

"It's so good to see you, Shad."

He hesitated before he could return the hug. He wrapped his arms around her and held her close to him. "…You too, Rouge."

She slowly pulled away from his body and studied his facial expression. He had looked so upset. It had almost seemed like someone close to him had died. "Come in." She watched him made his way inside of the house. When she closed the door behind him, she watched him sit down at the small table in the kitchen. She leaned her back against the refrigerator and stared at him while he rested his head on his hand. He looked so upset and frustrated. She had wondered what was on his mind. "So", she began. "How have you been, Shad? We haven't seen each other in days."

He looked up at her sadly. "I know…and I'm sorry. I just…" His words trailed off as she started to speak.

"No, no. I should be the one apologizing." She sighed heavily and crossed her arms. "I should have never said those things to you. I was just so worried that something would happen between you and Lien-Da."

When she had said that he felt like he couldn't look her in the eyes. He felt so guilty about what he and Lien-Da had done yesterday.

"Shadow, I should've never had thought of you in that kind of way." She smiled warmly when he had looked down at the table. "To be honest, you're one of the best boyfriends I've ever had. You're very sweet, loyal, honest, and trusting. I couldn't ask for anything else." She suddenly saw him shaking his head.

"I'm sorry, Rouge…I'm so sorry…"

She arched an eyebrow in confusion, "Huh?"

He took his eyes away from the table and looked in a different direction from her. "…It only happened once."

"Well, I'm sure you had a lot going on. With the drama with us and your new job, I can understand that you're starting to drink a little more. It'll be okay. I'll help you get through it."

He slowly shifted his eyes over to her, "…You think I'm talking about drinking?"

She shrugged her shoulders, "Well yeah?" She suddenly saw him sighing heavily and directing his eyes back down at the table. "…What? This isn't about your drinking?"

"…I'm sorry, Rouge. I'm really fucking sorry…"

The sadder he had gotten, the more worried she had got. "What's wrong, Shad? Talk to me, sweetie."

When she had thought that he was talking about drinking, that just made his situation that much harder for him. He took a deep breath before he started to explain. "…Something happened regarding me and Lien-Da…"

Her heart raced as he began to explain why he was acting so strange. Just by having him beginning to explain, horrible thoughts came rushing back to her mind. It was so painful for her, tears started to swell in her eyes. "…No…you…"

He figured by her reaction that she had knew what he was about to explain. "…I was just so angry and stressed out."

"This is why…why you've been so distant? Why you haven't been talking to me much? Because you were busy fucking Lien-Da?"

"We just needed some time apart…I didn't intend to…" He looked over to her who had tears streaming down her face.

"Please tell me you were just drunk…" she said while she began to sob.

"…No, I was very much sober."

"…What did you two do to each other?" She asked with a sniffle.

The hedgehog bit his lip. Did she really want to know every detail that happened between them? He really didn't want to tell her. He had a feeling it would just make everything worse. "Well, we made out…she sucked my dick…"

Rouge regretted asking him what the two had done together. "Shut up! I don't want to hear anymore!"

"…I didn't mean for this to happen."

"That's bullshit Shadow, and you know it!" Warm tears continued to stream down her face. "Why would you do this to me, Shadow?"

He shook his head and knew the real reason why he had done it. He was just simply angry with Rouge at the time and Lien-Da was just there. Tears swelled in his eyes as he regretted every moment that he had spent with Lien-Da. "Because I'm a piece of shit..."

She shook her head slightly and sobbed softly into her hands. "…Get out…"

As he saw her sobbing, he stood from the table, walked over to her, and attempted to reach out to her. "Rouge, I…"

She smacked his hand from her and began to yell and scream at him. "I said get out! Get the fuck out!"

After hearing her demands, he sadly turned away from her and walked out of the door.

With tears dripping from her face, she walked over to the door and locked it. She leaned her head against the door and began to break down crying.

**In The Next Chapter...**

**Trevor: No one here as ever acknowledged me before...**

**Shadow: Aren't you curious to know what's in there?**

**Trevor: Is something wrong, sir?**

**Shadow: I feel like I've been making a lot of bad choices lately...**


	16. Chapter 16

**CHAPTER 16**

**WHAT'S LEFT**

The next day at the G.U.N. facility, Shadow was wandering down the huge yet narrow hallways. He walked the hall as if he was lost in a daze. He was still upset over what had happened yesterday between him and Rouge. 'I really fucked up', he thought. 'Why would I turn around and cheat on one of the best things to ever happen to me?' He had to admit to himself that he didn't know what to do. His thoughts were interrupted when he heard a distant male voice calling his name.

"Lieutenant Shadow!"

He spun around and saw a male yellow lion wearing a blue soldier G.U.N. uniform running up to him. "Oh…good morning, Trevor", he spoke in a saddened tone.

He gave the hedgehog a puzzled look from his saddened expression. "Good morning, sir. Is something wrong?"

"…It's just…" His sentence trailed off before could even begin to explain to him what was really on his mind. He wondered if he really wanted to tell him or not.

The two later wandered into the weaponry room. They had their backs against the cold metal walls and watched other G.U.N. soldiers working from a distance.

Trevor turned to the hedgehog with a warm smile. "I just wanted to thank you for your help the other day."

He turned to him in confusion. He figured he must was talking about the mission everyone had went on the other day. "What? I didn't do much. Most of it was you you know?"

He shook his head slowly and smiled, "But you believed in me and…and no one's ever believed I could do anything before…"

He arched an eyebrow and turned to him, "Not even Gin or Lien-Da?"

"It's not like I don't like Lien-Da or anything. She's a sweet woman but she just never paid much attention to me to admire the work I do around here…" His eyes flashed over to a white male fox walking around the room along with a female brown cat woman following behind him. "…Her or Gin…"

Shadow could tell by his facial expression that he wasn't very fond of Gin.

"He barely credits any of the soldiers. It was just weird how he suddenly acknowledged me."

"Maybe he finally understands what an amazing soldier you are."

"Heh, maybe", he spoke in a sarcastic tone.

Shadow's eyes wandered around the room in curiosity. "…You know when I first got here, I thought an ass ton of soldiers hated me."

Trevor's mouth hung open as he heard Shadow's words. "What? Why would you think that?"

He turned to him as he began to explain. "Because some of these soldiers have worked here for years trying to get where they are. And some work and strive hard enough to try to rank themselves as lieutenants or commanders, but they never make the cut. Wouldn't you get pissed off if you worked here almost all of your life to become a lieutenant and all of a sudden, they hire some stranger off the street and hand him the position of being a lieutenant?"

His ears flopped down as he turned away from him. "I won't lie to you and say that some soldiers have felt that way but…a lot of people here respect you. Most of them know you're story from working at the Chaotix. You're a hard worker too. You inspire people. Like I said, you're one of the first who has ever believed I could do anything. That meant a lot to me, sir."

He made a warm smile, "Anyone is capable if they put their mind to it."

He made a nod as he agreed with him. "You're right." He watched as Gin and Sierra parted ways. Sierra had continued to walk throughout the room when Gin had walked through a strange metal door. There was a sign on it that read 'No Trespassing.' "…Have you ever been in there?"

The ebony hedgehog shook his head. "Lien-Da showed me that door before but she told me the only ones allowed in there was Gin and herself."

He raised an eyebrow in confusion. "What? You too? He and her must be hiding a dirty little secret in there", he snickered as dirty thoughts filled his mind.

Shadow did have to admit that it was suspicious that only Gin and Lien-Da were allowed in the room. 'I wonder what they're hiding…' He then noticed Trevor practically drooling over the sight of Sierra. He couldn't help but to make a teasing look. "See something you like?"

Suddenly his face turned red in embarrassment. "Wha? I don't know what you're talking about!"

It was way too obvious for him not to notice that Trevor had an interest in Sierra. "…You like Sierra don't you?"

Sweat poured from his head as he got more and more anxious. "No way! Are you kidding me? We're just friends!"

An amusing chuckle came from the hedgehog. "It's all right, Trevor."

He calmed down when he saw Shadow's sincere expression.

"You're secret is safe with me."

Trevor didn't trust many people who worked within the facility, but something had made him want to trust the hedgehog. "Thank you, sir." He suddenly saw Shadow's expression turn into a sad one. He looked like something was on his mind. "Are you feeling okay? You don't seem quite yourself."

He sighed heavily and began to hesitate. He wondered if he really wanted to tell Trevor what was going on with him. Even though Trevor had trusted him, Shadow wasn't sure if he felt the same way. He also figured that mentioning anything about what he and Lien-Da had done could cost him and her both of their jobs. He decided it was best to keep everything a secret. Yet he still wanted to say a little something about his situation to make him feel somewhat better. "…Nothing it's just…I feel like I've been making a lot of bad choices lately..."

He saw as he began to tightly clench his fists. He could tell he was beginning to get upset all over again. "…Everyone messes up sometimes. You live, breathe, and feel just as everyone else. Mistakes are natural."

"But I've seen it coming and I ignored the consequences…" He looked down to the floor in sadness. "I just don't know what to do or what to think anymore."

"Sir?"

He looked back over to him sadly.

"If you want my opinion, then just do what you feel is the right thing."

He bit his lip lightly as he thought long and hard from his words. He figured Rouge had hated him and never wanted to even talk to him again, so he kept asking himself what exactly did he have left?

**In The Next Chapter...**

**Shadow: So this necklace means a lot to you doesn't it?**

**Lien-Da: I have a lot of fond memories with it...**

**Shadow: ...I'm such an asshole...**


	17. Chapter 17

**CHAPTER 17**

**SYMPATHY**

After when Shadow was done talking to Trevor, he decided to head back to his office to gather his thoughts. Just as he was about to walk past Lien-Da's office, he heard her swearing while her office door was open.

"Damn it!"

He stopped in his tracks when he heard her voice carry out into the hallways. He didn't know what was going on. He figured something may have been wrong. He decided to check on her to make sure everything was okay. He peeked his head in the small office and saw Lien-Da standing in the middle of the room with her back turned to him. He had wondered what she was up to. "Lien-Da?"

The echidna woman quickly spun around and faced him with a warm smile. "Oh Shadow, it's you."

When she turned to him, he saw her holding a gray necklace in the palm of her hands. He decided to walk into the office to see what she was doing. "Are you okay?"

A light blush formed on her face, "I'm so embarrassed."

He saw her closing the door behind him when he had walked in.

"I bet everyone heard my voice carry down the hall."

Shadow shook his head slightly, "I'm pretty sure it was just me since I was passing by." He walked up to her and pointed at the necklace she was holding. "Is that what all the fuss is about?"

She looked down at the necklace and sighed heavily, "My favorite necklace went to shit on me.

"…Maybe I can fix it."

She carefully placed the broken necklace in his hand. She then watched him stand behind her and place the necklace around her neck while he tried to fix it. She had noticed that they were both standing in front of a mirror that was hung on the wall. With the mirror being right there, she could see Shadow's facial expressions while he stood behind her.

"This necklace looks pretty interesting. Just by it being worn, I can tell you've had it for awhile."

She made a small nod, "Yes I have. I've had it for as long as I could remember…long before I moved to Tech City actually." She gently placed her hand around the round piece that dangled from the necklace. "It's actually a locket."

His heart skipped a beat when she had said that her necklace was actually a locket. He was then reminded of the locket he had given Rouge before they broke up. "…What's in it?"

"…It's a picture of my son, Rutan." She looked in the mirror and saw Shadow with an unbelievable look on his face.

He was lost for words as she revealed a pretty interesting fact about her. "…You have a son?"

She giggled softly from his reaction. "Yes I do…I'm sorry I didn't bring it up before. It just never came up you know?"

He figured if she never spoke of it then she had a reason not to. Why didn't she tell him sooner about it? "…Don't tell me you're married too?"

"Nope", she spoke sadly. "I just had a douchebag boyfriend."

"…You want to start letting me in on your life story?"

She made a small smile even though she felt slightly uncomfortable speaking of her past. However, since the two had sex together, she thought it was only fair of him to know. "Back on Angel Island, I gave birth to Rutan when I was only seventeen. My boyfriend and I didn't really have any issues with each other until it all happened out of the blue…"

He paused and continued to listen to her.

"My boyfriend approached me and wanted to take Rutan away from me. He spoke nonsense that I wasn't fit to take care of my own son. I swore to him that he would never get possession of him. He walked away angry that I didn't give him up."

"…Then what happened?"

Tears swelled in her eyes as she continued. "Within a week, my house had gotten raided by the authorities. It turned out that someone had lied and told them that I possessed illegal drugs. When they were done searching my house, they approached me with several bags of cocaine, heroin, and meth." A tear streamed down her cheek, "When I put the pieces together, I knew who had put all that shit around the house. Only two people had keys to the house. My boyfriend and myself…"

"So you thought your boyfriend had set you up?"

She made a small nod, "I know it was him. He did it so he could earn points to have custody over Rutan."

"So with all that shit against you, you lost Rutan?"

A tear fell from her face, "Yeah." Her voice began to get hoarse, "No one believed me so he won and took him away from me. I never saw Rutan again…"

When he finished fixing her necklace, he confronted her, and gave her a sympathetic look.

She let out a sniffle as more tears fell from her face. "…I don't know where he is..." She suddenly felt his gentle finger wiping the tears from her face. She looked into his red eyes while he cupped her face.

"I'm sure wherever he is, he's fine."

She leaned her body against his. "Do you really think so, Shadow?"

He ran his finger gently across her soft lips. "I know so."

She pulled herself closer to him until her lips were pressed against his.

The two were then locked in a passionate and heated kiss.

He suddenly gently pushed her back against the wall and began to gently kiss her neck.

She moaned in pleasure as his tongue massaged her neck. "Oh, Shadow…" She felt his lips travel from her neck down to her chest.

As he kissed and licked her cleavage, he slowly began to peel off her bodysuit. When her bodysuit dropped to her ankles, she watched as he continued to kiss down her body. Her moans got louder as his kisses got closer to her lower region. Her body quivered in excitement when she felt the tip of his tongue stroking her opening. Her smile widened and she ran her fingers through his quills.

The strokes with his tongue had gotten fiercer and fiercer.

She felt as though she wanted to melt over the overwhelming sensation she was receiving.

As he licked and suckled her moist opening, he slipped his fingers into her.

She became weak in the knees as he pushed his fingers in and out of her. "Shadow, it feels so good. Don't stop", she begged in an aroused tone.

Knowing that she had clearly enjoyed it, he continued on for a few more moments.

She heard him unbuckling the belt to his pants and smiled. "I want you inside of me", she spoke softly.

He caressed her sides and kissed her stomach. He stood to his feet and kissed her lips while he stroked himself inside of her thighs.

While he kissed her, she gasped slightly when she felt him pushing himself inside of her. While inside of her, she felt her body being held up against the wall. She wrapped her legs around his body and gripped her hands on his shoulders.

While he began to thrust himself in and out of her, he could hear her moans getting louder and louder. He kissed her so it would quiet her a little more. After all, they were practically standing next to the door of the small office.

As he pounded her moist walls faster and harder, she didn't know how much more she could take. She cried out in orgasm when she suddenly felt his warm sensation splash inside of her. Afterwards, her feet touched the floor and her knees trembled. She looked up at him and smiled warmly.

Before he could do or say anything to her, she had suddenly embrace him.

She leaned her head against his chest and nuzzled him lovingly.

With unease, he wrapped his arms around her and had the feeling that she had just then developed more than just feelings for him. '…I'm such an asshole…'

**In The Next Chapter...**

**Espio: That's her? She doesn't look so hot. Eight out of ten would bang...**

**Tonya: Are you okay?**

**Rouge:...Hell no!**

**Lien-Da: It's not my fault, your boyfriend knows a good thing when he sees it!**

**Rouge: I'll fucking kill you!**


	18. Chapter 18

**CHAPTER 18**

**REALITY**

Later that next day, Tonya, Rouge, and Espio were taking a walk throughout Tech City. The day was sunny and the weather was fairly warm.

After when Rouge had told everyone at the Chaotix about her shocking confrontation with Shadow, Tonya and Espio figured having a nice day out would clear her mind.

By the way Rouge had looked, it seemed that she wasn't doing too well. It was obvious that she was still very much upset about what had happened between her and Shadow. Even though it only happened a few days ago, she still acted like it had just happened. However, what could they expect? Shadow and Rouge had been together for as long as they could remember. The entire situation was heart wrenching for her. However, she tried to cheer up a little as she knew she was getting great support from her concerned friends. "Thanks for hanging out with me today, guys. I really had to just get out."

Tonya gently placed her hand on her shoulder and smiled warmly. "Hey it's no problem, Rouge. We're here for you."

The depressed bat woman slowly looked up at her and made a small smile.

"I still can't get over this", Espio spoke angrily. "What could've possessed him to do something like that? I expect this kind of behavior from me! Not him!"

A sweat drop appeared on the side of Tonya's head. "For once I kinda agree with Espio. I always thought of Shadow as a passionate guy when it came to relationships." She gave Rouge a saddened look, "You two went through so much together and it's just weird of him to just throw everything you two had away."

Espio crossed his arms, " Yeah! And over another woman too? That doesn't sound like him at all!" He turned to Rouge, "I bet this chick isn't even that hot!"

Rouge stopped in her tracks and her eyes wandered down to the ground in sadness. "…She's not hot…she's gorgeous…"

Tonya and Espio were in shock that Rouge had started to praise the woman who they thought she had hated.

Tears swelled in Rouge's eyes, "No wonder he left me for her…"

"Oh, Rouge! Stop it! There's no way this woman is prettier than you!" Tonya spoke angrily.

"Exactly!" Espio added. He gently placed a hand on her shoulder and made her look up at him. "And no matter how bad things may seem right now just remember…"

As she listened to him, a warm tear ran down her cheek.

"…Things will get better."

Tonya made a small nod as she agreed with him.

"You have a lot of friends who's got your back including Tonya and myself. So don't forget that you're never alone in anything."

Tonya took Rouge's hand and made a warm smile. "That's right. We'll all get through it together."

Rouge wiped the tear from her face and smiled at the two before she hugged them both. "You're right! Thanks, guys! Thank you so much!"

Tonya slowly pulled away from the two and smiled widely. "Come on! No sense in wasting an entirely beautiful day! Let's go shopping! I bet there's a shoe sale going on somewhere! Can't go wrong with a new pair of shoes!"

Before they had started walking again, Espio and Tonya noticed that Rouge stood in place while fixing her eyes on a red echidna woman who was standing near a newspaper stand. They both eyed the woman who was glancing through a magazine.

The woman wore a black leather jacket with a white tube top underneath, blue denim skinny jeans, and black high heeled ankle boots.

While Espio practically drooled over the sight of her, Tonya looked back at Rouge in worry. "…Um, Rouge?"

"That's her…" She growled under her breath. "…Lien-Da…"

Tonya and Espio looked back at the echidna woman in shock. The way she was dressed they had assumed that this was her day off. "What!"

Espio pointed at the woman in disbelief. "That's her? That's the chick Shadow hooked up with?"

Tonya placed her hands on her hips as she gave the chameleon an angry look for overreacting at the sight of her.

"…Uh…" He shrugged his shoulders carelessly and pretended like he didn't find her attractive, "Big deal! She's not so hot…eight out of ten would bang."

Tonya shook her head as she had gotten annoyed with Espio's comment about Lien-Da. She looked over to Rouge with a worried look once again. She suddenly saw Rouge's sad expression turn into an angry one. "Rouge?" She called, "Are you okay?"

The bat woman paused for a long moment before she had replied to her. She clenched her fists harder and harder the more she had glared at Lien-Da. She suddenly dropped her purse to the ground angrily. "…Hell no!"

Tonya and Espio watched in horror as Rouge began to suddenly storm her way over to the echidna woman.

Without warning, Lien-Da felt herself being forcefully shoved. It was almost hard enough to push her down. She dropped the magazine she was reading and turned to a furious white bat woman standing next to her. When she realized who it was, her confused expression turned to a sly one. "Well, well if it isn't Shadow's little jealous girlfriend."

"Ex girlfriend, you bitch!" She spat angrily.

Judging by her angry tone with her, she figured Shadow had told her about his affair with her. "Aw you're upset?" She asked in a sarcastic tone. "Is it because a certain hedgehog got tired of a nagging jealous bat girl always on his case?"

"I had every right to be on his case! He apparently wanted to fuck you!"

She placed her hands on her hips and nodded. "Oh he sure did! And hey it's not my fault he knows a good thing when he see it!"

"Fuck you!" She yelled.

"Oh come on now! If it wasn't for you pushing him away, I would never have had such an opportunity to getting to know him intimately…"

She began to unclench her fists. "…I never meant to push him away", she murmured softly.

"But you did and now he couldn't give a fuck about you!"

She didn't want to believe that Shadow didn't care about her anymore. She had thought if he didn't care, he would have never confronted her about his affair with her and look so upset confessing it. He truly looked as though he regretted it ever happening. "…You're wrong! Shadow still cares about me! I know he does!"

She chuckled under her breath, "If he still cared about you or regret the things he's done, do you think he still would be fucking me?"

Rouge's face had then gotten still and pale. She was lost for words. '…Shadow isn't still seeing her…is he?'

"…What? Did you think we had sex only once?"

She had gotten quiet and had begun to become full of sadness once again. She remembered when he had confessed, he told her he had sex with her only once. Could that have been a lie? She had wondered how many times they had actually had sex before he confessed to her that he was cheating? She had begun to get sick from the thought.

"If he was truly sorry for what had happened the first time, we would have never had sex yesterday."

Espio and Tonya were under shock to know that Shadow was still having relations with her even after he told Rouge about his cheating.

An evil smirk formed on Lien-Da's lips. "It's obvious he's moved on to better things. He has a great job and he has me. Seems to me he's forgotten all about you."

With tears streaming down her face, she clenched her fists and began to yell and scream at her. "You're a liar!"

She arched an eyebrow towards her, "Oh? I'm lying? Go ahead and ask him yourself what it was like to have him down on his knees eating my pussy!"

At that moment, she was seeing red and her anger exploded inside of her. "You fucking slut!"

Her eyes widened when she saw her approaching her and suddenly starting to attack her. A hard slap had smacked her on the side of her cheek. Before she could send another hit towards her, she grabbed both of her wrists and held them behind her back. "You're trying to take on a highly trained military lieutenant? Grave mistake!" She suddenly kicked Rouge hard in the back, so hard she fell to the ground.

Tonya and Espio came running over to aid her. "Rouge!"

Tonya glared over to the echidna as she stood in front of them. "That's enough, Lien-Da!"

She shrugged her shoulders apathetically. "What? I thought she wanted to fight me over a guy who obviously doesn't give a shit about her?"

Tonya and Espio remained silent and gave the echidna a hateful glare.

"Let that be a warning for your pathetic friend over there. Next time, I'll throw her sorry ass in a pretty cell for assaulting a G.U.N. officer…"

"…You bitch!" Tonya growled angrily.

She giggled softly as she found the entire situation between them amusing, "Oh I very much can be!"

They watched as she slowly walked away from them. Afterwards, they helped Rouge from the ground.

Tonya saw Rouge wiping the tears from her face. "…Are you okay?"

Before she had spoke, Espio had spoken first.

"As much as I hate to admit it, she's right…" Espio spoke as he turned to Rouge, "You're lucky she didn't arrest you for that."

Rouge paused for a moment and then made a small nod. "I guess she's right about a lot of things…Shadow is an asshole and I need to learn to accept it…"

Tonya and Espio watched as Rouge began to slowly walk down the sidewalk in sadness.

The purple cat turned to the chameleon in worry, "…Espio…"

After hearing the tone in Tonya's voice, he knew that she wanted him to go talk to Shadow about the entire thing. Espio had talked to Shadow on and off during the entire thing but everything was short on Shadow's end and he never got any straight answers from him. As much as Espio didn't want to interfere in Shadow and Rouge's situation, he thought it was time for him to finally confront the hedgehog and get some clear answers.

**In The Next Chapter...**

**Espio: You're drunk? That's a surprise!**

**Shadow: You don't know what I've been going through...**

**Espio: I know you've been acting selfish and stupid!**

**Shadow:...She'll never take me back...**

**Espio:...Do you love her?**

**Shadow:...**


	19. Chapter 19

**CHAPTER 19**

**REGRET**

Later the next day, Espio decided to go see Shadow at his house. He figured he would go see him without him ever expecting it. He thought if he told Shadow ahead of time that he was coming over, he had the feeling that Shadow would possibly try to make up some kind of excuse or perhaps lie on why he had cheated on Rouge.

When he had got to Shadow's house, he walked up to the door and knocked a few times. He waited until the door finally opened within moments later. A disgusted look had appeared on his face as he studied the black male hedgehog who stood at the doorway giving him a confused look while he held a half empty beer bottle in his hand. Just from looking at the beer bottle and his dazed expression, it was no doubt that he was drunk.

"…Espio? What are you doing here, dude?" He asked while slurring some of his words.

"…Fuck me…you're drunk! What a surprise!" He spoke sarcastically to the drunken hedgehog. "I came to talk…"

"Um, okay? Come in, man!" He stepped to the side and allowed Espio inside of the house.

Espio slowly made his way into the living room while hearing the door practically slam behind him. He watched as Shadow stumbled his way over to the sofa and sat down.

Shadow took a sip from the beer bottle before he spoke to him again. "Well don't just stand there! Sit down, man!"

Espio sighed heavily before he sat down in the chair across from him. He kept thinking to himself that did he really want to talk to Shadow in the condition he was in? Knowing Shadow was drunk, he was thinking that he probably won't be getting the straight answers he was hoping for.

"So what's been going on, Es? I haven't see you in forever!"

He rose an eyebrow, "Yeah? Too busy with your new job? And fucking your new girl?" He spoke bitterly.

He paused as Espio began to bring up the subject about Lien-Da. "…Can we talk about something else?"

He shook his head, "No. I came here specifically to talk with you about it."

"…But…I don't want to talk about it", he said before he took another sip from the bottle.

"Well tough shit, Shadow! We're talking about it!" He shouted in a frustrated tone.

"…I told you and I'm sure Rouge did too. I cheated on Rouge with Lien-Da."

"But why?"

He chuckled a bit, "Because I'm a piece of shit."

Espio grew more and more disgusted with Shadow's behavior. He knew deep down Shadow was sorry for what he had done but at the moment, he was far too drunk to show it.

The hedgehog shrugged his shoulders carelessly. "What? I can't get my dick sucked by another hot girl? You do this all the time, dude!"

"But I didn't commit myself to another woman!"

"Chill! It's not like she and I were married or anything! Relax!" He had took another sip from the bottle. "Rouge and I got in a fight at the time anyway. She thought I was fucking her before we even started to actually fuck around. Lien-Da was just so hot and she wanted to fuck me so why not?"

With every sip of beer Shadow kept drinking, the more it made Espio angry. He was trying to have a serious conversation with him but he was so out of it, it was hard to get through to him. "…Stop fucking drinking when I'm talking to you!"

"Screw you, Espio! You can't tell me what to do!" He shouted angrily before drinking more.

"You're acting like such a fucking child! You made a huge mistake and now you're trying to run away from your problems by drowning yourself in alcohol!" He yelled angrily, "You need to admit it! You regret what you've done with Lien-Da!"

"No I don't!"

"Yes you do! If you didn't, you wouldn't be locking yourself in your fucking house drinking to death!"

"Shut up!" He suddenly threw the half empty beer bottle at the wall.

Hearing the glass bottle shatter against the wall had startled Espio. Afterwards, he saw him suddenly sobbing softly.

"You don't know anything!" He sobbed, "You don't know what I've been going through!"

With the way Shadow was acting, Espio didn't seem at all surprised. He witnessed Shadow getting drunk in front of him for as long as he could remember. He knew better than anyone what kind of drunk Shadow was. He was apparently more of an emotional and angry drunk than anything else. If anything, he was more annoyed than frightened of his behavior. "…Why, Shadow? What's the real reason why you decided to cheat on a good woman?"

He shook his head slightly as he cried, "…I don't know…"

"Yes you do", he spoke in a firm voice. "So spill it. What made you want to cheat on her?"

He placed his hand on his forehead and looked down to the floor where other empty beer bottles were seen. "…She didn't trust me around Lien-Da…"

He placed a finger to his chin, "And because she didn't trust you, it gave you the right to cheat on her? That doesn't exactly give you cool points on the whole trust factor you know?"

"…I was angry with her…"

"Big deal", he growled in a low voice. "Rouge and you have gotten into disagreements before. Why is this time any different?"

"…It was the fact that she didn't have any faith in our relationship. She…didn't have any faith in me..."

Espio crossed his arms and continued to listen to Shadow.

"And at that point, it felt like she and I were no longer dating anyway." He took his eyes away from the floor. "And then there was Lien-Da...When shit was starting to fall apart for me and Rouge, she was there for me…"

The way he heard him talking about Lien-Da, it almost seemed like he had more than just feelings for her. "…Do you love her?"

He paused and looked over to the anxious chameleon. "I won't lie and say I don't have feelings for her but…no…I don't love her."

"…What about Rouge?"

"…What about her?"

"Do you love her?" He asked in an angry tone.

He paused for a moment then made a small nod. "Of course I do, but I can't just apologize and pretend that everything is okay between us. Not after I fucked Lien-Da twice!"

He suddenly saw him get off of the sofa and walk into the kitchen. He sighed in annoyance and followed him into the kitchen. When he stepped into the kitchen, he saw him walk over to the refrigerator and open it. He watched as he took out another beer bottle from it. "Rouge said that you told her you fucked her only once."

He shook his head and opened the bottle. "That was before. The last time we fucked was a few days ago."

Espio arched an eyebrow towards him as he saw him beginning to drink more. He had thought Lien-Da was adding more to her side of the story just to get under Rouge's skin, but it seemed that she was telling some truth after all. "So Lien-Da and you are on the same page then. You two did fuck more than once…"

He then began to wonder how Espio knew so much recent activity between him and Lien-Da. He knew he sure didn't say anything to him or any of the Chaotix lately. "…Wait a minute, you talked to Lien-Da?"

He made a small nod. "Me, Tonya, and Rouge ran into her yesterday while we were out. It got pretty nasty between Rouge and Lien-Da."

He bit his lip in shock. He couldn't believe it. Rouge and Lien-Da had crossed paths and after when Shadow had cheated. He just knew their confrontation with each other wasn't a good one. "…What happened?"

"Lien-Da basically rubbed what you two have been doing in Rouge's face. Rouge got heated and attacked her."

He set down the beer bottle on the counter and rested his head on his hand. "Holy shit…" He sighed heavily in frustration, "What am I going to do?"

"Don't be stupid…"

Shadow turned to the chameleon with a puzzled look on his face.

"You know what you need to do."

He made a nod as he began to catch on to what Espio was trying to tell him. However, he couldn't see Rouge forgiving him for what he had done to her. "…But…she'll never take me back…"

"Don't say that! Especially when you haven't even attempted to talk to her yet! Besides…" He snatched the beer bottle away from his reach and set it aside from him. "Rouge isn't the only victim here! Though Lien-Da seems like a mega cunt, you've been leading her on and that's not fair to her, Shadow!"

"…You're right", he spoke in a saddened tone. "I'm playing the fuck out of her and she doesn't deserve to be treated like that." He then remembered what Lien-Da had told him about her past life with her ex boyfriend and her son. He knew that she had been through a lot and looking back at his actions towards her, he seemed no better than her old lover. "I need to break it off with Lien-Da and hope Rouge forgives me…"

"No way!"

"…What?"

"You fucked up, Shadow and you fucked up bad! You can't just simply go up to Rouge telling her that you're done with this woman."

"Well what else can I do?"

"You can't just tell her that you're done with Lien-Da. You have to show it too."

Shadow listened and tried to figure out what Espio had meant.

"Shadow, you know what you have to do. It's a hell of a sacrifice but it's either that or not having the woman you belong with back in your life again."

When Shadow slowly looked away from him, he then realized exactly what he had to do and knew it was the only way to show Rouge he was truly sorry.

**In The Next Chapter...**

**Gin:...Do you love him?**

**Lien-Da: To be honest, I don't know what love feels like anymore...**

**Gin: What do you mean you have to go?**

**Shadow: I just can't be here...**

**Trevor: Lieutenant Shadow! Something's horribly wrong!**

**Shadow: What the hell have they been doing in here?**


	20. Chapter 20

**CHAPTER 20**

**THE ROOM**

Later the next day at the G.U.N. facility, Gin was pacing around his small office aimlessly. He seemed very anxious and had a lot on his mind.

Lien-Da was sitting on his desk with her legs crossed watching him pace around the room. She then saw him standing in front of a wall full off pictures.

As he stared at the pictures, it seemed as though he was caught in a daze.

"So…", she spoke. "…Things have been pretty quiet around here huh?"

Gin fixed his eyes on a picture of him appearing to be around his twenties at the time. He was standing next to a male gray mongoose who appeared to be in his late thirties. The two were both wearing military uniforms. A sad look had appeared in his eyes as he looked at how happy he was in the picture. "Yes", he spoke dully. "It has been."

She had noticed that he was staring at the picture of him and G.U.N's first commander. She figured he was caught remembering the times he had shared with the commander. "Remembering old times?"

He made a small nod, "…Yeah." He looked away from the photo and turned to her with a small smile. "Too bad the old commanders were lunatics."

The echidna let out a small chuckle. "Good thing we're not insane huh?"

"Hmm, I don't know." He walked behind his desk and sat down in his desk chair. "You tell me, Lien-Da."

She paused and gave the fox a confused look. "…What?"

He leaned against the surface of his desk and made sure to look into her eyes as he spoke to her. "You must think I'm stupid huh?"

She remained silent as she tried to figure out what he was talking about.

A teasing smile appeared on his face. "…You and that hedgehog are fucking around aren't you?"

Her heart skipped a beat as those words slipped from his lips. She had wondered how he could have possibly known about her and Shadow's secret affair. "…How did you know?"

"It doesn't take forty fucking minutes to check if he was okay from that petty gunshot wound."

She bit her lip as she knew that apparently the time they spent together that day in the office was obviously too long. "…Crap…"

"Besides after when I talked to you later that day, you were practically glowing. It was a sure sign you had gotten laid."

A small blush formed on her face in embarrassment. "It wasn't that obvious…"

"Lien-Da, come on! You and I both know you haven't gotten any in years!"

Suddenly a bitter look had appeared on her face. "Oh? And getting raped by Fakir doesn't count?"

He slowly shifted his eyes away from her when he found out that he had suddenly upset her. Apparently, he had brought up bad memories for her. He had known about Fakir's constant sexual assaults against her and it killed him from the inside that he did nothing to help her when he clearly knew what was going on. He was more closer to Itsuki than he was to Fakir because Fakir was mentally insane and he always had felt uncomfortable around him. He thought she had hated him from not being there for her. Til this day, he still didn't know if Lien-Da still carried that grudge against him. "…I'm sorry if I…"

She shook her head slowly and sighed sadly. "…No, it's all right. Just…forget about it."

After when he had brought up that horrible memory from her past, he wanted to quickly change the subject. "…So do you…love him?"

"Who?…Shadow?"

He made a small nod.

A sarcastic chuckle escaped her as she crossed her arms and looked away from him so he couldn't see her facial expressions. "To be honest, I don't know what love feels like anymore…"

Gin had then made a sympathetic look and looked down at his desk. He wanted to hate himself. Every little thing he said to her had backfired it seemed. No matter what he said, it seemed to always get to her. He knew more about Lien-Da than anyone else in the military and he knew that she had lived a rough life.

"I've been alone for so long, I forgot what it means to have someone in your life who actually gives a fuck about you."

"…Lien-Da…", he spoke in a saddened tone.

She slowly turned to him and gave him her full attention.

"Don't ever think that you're alone. We're friends remember? Friends look out for each other no matter what happens. Right?" He spoke with a warm smile.

After hearing his kind words towards her, a gently smile slowly formed on her lips. "…Right…"

Meanwhile, Shadow was walking down the crowded sidewalk of the city. He was on his way to the military facility. His hands shook nervously as all kind of thoughts were rushing through his head. He kept remembering bits and pieces of his talk with Espio the previous day. After finally sitting down and talking to someone about his situation with Lien-Da, he felt like he knew what he had to do to make things right between him and Rouge again. He suddenly stopped in his tracks as he saw a white bat woman walking towards his direction. When her attention was directed to him, his heart raced. "R-Rouge?" He called nervously.

The bat woman froze in her tracks as well and glared into the hedgehog's eyes.

There was a long and awkward silence between the two as other people walked around the two who seemed to be frozen in time.

Before he could say anything else to her, he saw her beginning to walk back in the direction from where she had came.

"…Oh hell no", she muttered coldly as she turned away from him.

His eyes widened when he saw her walking away from him. "Rouge!" He began to walk after her, "Rouge, wait!"

She rolled her eyes in annoyance as she kept angrily walking away from him. "Go to hell, Shadow!"

He noticed as she kept walking, she didn't dare look back at him, however that didn't stop him from following her. "Rouge, please!" He begged, "Just hear me out!"

She sighed heavily and decided to listen to what he had to say to her while she kept walking. "…Fine. Speak."

It aggravated him that she didn't bother to stop walking and still didn't turn to face him to see how sorry he was. "Rouge, I'm sorry about this…all of this. I was just so stressed out and confused. I just lost sight of what was really important in my life and that's you." He noticed that she didn't say a word to him and kept walking.

"I know I've been an asshole but now I know I'm in the wrong and I'm going to fix that."

"Oh yeah? How?"

"…Not only am I going to break it off with Lien-Da but I'm leaving G.U.N. as well."

Her eyes widened in shock after hearing his unexpected decision. She stopped in her tracks and spun around to face him. "…You're going to quit, G.U.N?"

He had nodded as a reply.

She placed her hand on her forehead in disbelief. "So you think everything is going to be okay if you leave G.U.N? You think everything will be back to where it once was?"

He had noticed that the tone of her voice was getting higher and higher.

"Shadow, have you not learned anything? The thing that damaged our relationship was the whole trust issue. Just because you're so called done with Lien-Da, it doesn't mean you'll go out and cheat again."

He saw her step closer to him while giving him a hateful look.

"You broke my heart, Shadow. How can I ever bring myself to give you another chance and open myself back up to you?"

His eyes shifted from hers as he had remained silent.

"…I need some time to think so for now…goodbye, Shadow."

Speechless, he watched her storm her way away from him.

Much later in the conference room at the facility, Lien-Da and Gin were sitting together at the end of a huge table.

They both directed their attention to the black and red hedgehog standing at the other end of the table. Judging by his expression, it seemed that a lot was going on in his mind.

"Well", Gin spoke. "We're all here and accounted for. What was so important that you wanted to see us here, Shadow?"

"Yeah", Lien-Da added. "What's up?"

The hedgehog sighed heavily as he reached inside of his coat pocket and took out his badge.

In confusion, Gin and Lien-Da watched as he set the badge down on the surface of the table in front of him.

"I called you both in here to tell you that I'm resigning my position as third lieutenant."

The room was filled with an awkward silence when Shadow had revealed the shocking news to the two lieutenants.

After going under shock from Shadow's announcement, Gin finally spoke up. "…Resigning? Shadow, I'm…lost for words here. What made you want to make such a decision? You were doing an excellent job."

"…I know but I have my reasons." His eyes glanced over to Lien-Da who looked like she had a broken heart. "…Personal reasons…"

Judging how Shadow and Lien-Da were exchanging looks towards each other, he figured him quitting had something to do with his secret affair with her. However, he tried to make it seem like he didn't have the slightest idea why he was leaving. He shook his head slowly, "I don't understand your reason for quitting but you clearly made your decision and I can't stop you from what you want to do." He stood from his chair, walked over to Shadow, and shook his hand. "It's been a pleasure working with you, Shadow."

He made a small nod and slowly took his hand from his. "Yeah…" He suddenly heard Lien-Da speak out to him.

"We'll miss you, Shadow."

He looked over to her still sitting in her chair having a hurtful expression on her face. He admitted that he wanted to tell her that was sorry for all the things he's said and done to her. He wanted to tell her to her face that he never meant to hurt her, but he couldn't. He knew if he told her, it would be more painful for her. He just decided that simply leaving was for the best. He looked away from her and left the room without saying another word to either of them.

After when he had left, Gin slowly turned to Lien-Da who bit her lip and had her eyes looking in another direction. He could tell just by looking at her that she was hurt. Shadow had apparently quit working for G.U.N. simply to never see Lien-Da again. It hurt him to see her so upset because she had lost the only man she was close with in a long time. "…Lien-Da…"

She shook her head slowly and never directed her full attention to him. "Gin, we should just…go…"

The white fox paused for a moment and then made a small nod.

Meanwhile, Shadow stormed down the empty halls of the facility. There wasn't a moment to spare. He had just officially quit G.U.N. and cut off any other connections he had with Lien-Da. Now all he had to do was leave the facility and confront Rouge about the entire thing once again. He took a deep breath as he walked throughout the white halls. 'It was the right thing to do. I'm sorry, Lien-Da…' He suddenly stopped in his tracks when he heard Trevor's voice calling his name and footsteps running behind him.

"Lieutenant Shadow!"

The hedgehog quickly spun around and turned to a male yellow lion who ran up to him out of breath. Just by looking at his expression, he appeared to be full of panic. "Trevor?"

"Thank God I found you! We have a problem!"

As much as he wanted to help him, he knew he couldn't. He was no longer a lieutenant so he figured there was nothing he could do anyway. "Trevor, listen I…"

He placed his hand on his arm as he begged. "Please, sir! You have to come with me! Quickly!"

The hedgehog paused for a small moment thinking if he really wanted to see what was upsetting Trevor. He took a deep breath before replying back to him. "…What's wrong?"

Moments later, Trevor led him through the empty weaponry room and to the strange metal door that allowed no one in except Gin or Lien-Da.

Shadow rose an eyebrow as he stared at the 'No Trespassing' sign . "What are we doing here? You know we're not allowed in there."

"I know", he spoke as his hand fell on the cold metal handle of the door. "But you just need to see this."

He saw him take out Gin's ID badge and hold it in front of a red light that was a little below the door handle. He had wondered how he had gotten Gin's badge. He figured Trevor probably had took it from Gin while he wasn't looking. As soon as the red light turned green, Shadow watched as Trevor slowly flung the door open. When he peeked his head into the room, he saw huge white lights being directed onto huge cells that were setting side by side and lined up across from each other. As he and Trevor walked into the room, Shadow studied what was inside of the room.

The room had looked like it used to be a place to temporarily hold criminals or suspects. Perhaps it was an old prison room. He studied the room more and saw some lab equipment being set on a huge metal table in the center of the room. He looked harder on the table and saw bloody tools and different parts of organs being placed in containers and test tubes. There were even different parts of the body such as arms, legs, and other parts being scattered all over the table. A disgusted look was shown on his face as he stared at the disturbing things that was placed all over the table. "…What the hell is this?"

When he placed his back against one of the cells, he suddenly felt something shake the metal bars of the cell. Startled, he jumped away from the cell and spun around to see what was in it. He and Trevor directed their attention to a brown creature with sharp fangs, claws, a long slender tail, and piercing red eyes. Shadow couldn't believe what he was looking at. "…Holy shit…it's an…Almas…"

Trevor nervously looked around the room and saw more of the creatures that were placed in the rest of the cells. "They're everywhere…"

As Shadow looked at all of the creatures that were placed in the rest of the cells, he had noticed some of them were wearing tattered remains of a G.U.N. uniform. He suddenly felt sick to his stomach. "My God…these Almas used to be G.U.N. soldiers…"

Tears started to swell in Trevor's eyes, "What? These…things used to be people?" His hands started to shake nervously, "Oh my God! Oh my fucking God!"

Shadow gritted his teeth in uprising anger. "I knew it", he murmured. "I knew something was wrong with this place!"

Trevor looked over to the angered hedgehog. "Lieutenant Shadow?"

"…We have to go!"

He made a nod and agreed with him.

Before the two could leave the horrifying room, they turned and saw Gin standing at the doorway with a handgun pointed at the side of Sierra's head.

"You're not going anywhere…"

Shadow growled at the sight of the white fox. "…Gin…"

Trevor's eyes widened in horror as he saw Sierra's terrified face. "Sierra!"

Tears streamed down the cat woman's face. "Lieutenant Shadow, what's going on?" She asked in a frightened voice.

Before any of them could do anything, Trevor suddenly saw Shadow fall to the floor and was knocked unconscious. "Lieutenant Shadow!" When he spun around, he turned to a red echidna woman who had a handgun in her hand. "Lieutenant Lien-Da?"

An evil smirk formed on her face as she stepped closer to Trevor.

Terrified, Trevor's entire body froze. He looked up at the echidna in shock. He saw her raise the end of her handgun up at him.

"Sorry, Trevor."

He shut his eyes and suddenly everything had went black.

**In The Next Chapter...**

**Rouge: I'm really glad I came here, Julie. I needed to get away from Tech City for at least a little while.**

**Julie-Su: What happened?**

**Rouge:...Shadow cheated on me with some military skank by the name of Lien-Da. Maybe you've heard of her?**

**Julie-Su:...Lien-Da? Did you say Lien-Da?**


	21. Chapter 21

**CHAPTER 21**

**LIEN-DA**

Much later on Angel Island, Rouge was sitting on the nicely trimmed cut grass under a shady tree. A gentle breeze had flowed through her hair allowing a calm smile to form on her face, as she enjoyed the warm weather. She looked over at the female pink echidna woman sitting next to her. She had pink hair with one cybernetic dreadlock, half of her right arm was cybernetic as well. She wore a black and green sleeveless vest, black skinny jeans, and knee high green boots.

She smiled as she saw her watching other young echidna children playing tag with each other out in a field full of white flowers near them.

The pink echidna watched as one of the young echidnas approached her while holding a single white flower up to her.

The echidna child was a young boy whose fur was red and had white tips at the end of his dreadlocks. He wore a blue short sleeve vest, blue denim shorts, and white sneaker. He appeared to be ten or possibly eleven. "Aunt Julie-Su! Look what I got for you!"

She carefully took the flower from him and sniffed it. She then gave the child a warm smile. "It's beautiful. Thank you, Rutan."

The small child smiled wide and then ran off to play with the other echidna children once again.

Rouge admired the tender moment between the two. "I didn't know you had a nephew, Julie?"

She turned back to her with a small smile. "Yeah", she spoke. "I don't get to spend much time with him cause of work and all. He stays at an orphanage nearby."

A worried look had appeared on Rouge's face. "Why is that? Something happened to his parents?"

Julie-Su glanced back over to him and made sure he was distracted by playing with the other children before she started to tell Rouge briefly what had happened to his parents. She looked back at Rouge and began to explain in a low voice. "His mother went psycho and killed his father and then ran off."

Rouge placed her hand over her mouth in shock. "Oh my God…"

"Yeah it's sad but it all happened when he was just a newborn so he wasn't old enough to understand."

"…Does he know?"

She shook her head slowly, "We've been telling him that he was simply abandoned by his mother and father. Everyone tells him that no one has ever met his parents. Everyone just agreed to try to keep everything a secret around him. It's just too horrifying to tell him at such a young age. He'll know the truth when he's older."

She placed a finger to her chin and then nodded as she agreed that telling him about his parents once he matured enough would be best for him. "I see…" She then decided to change the depressing subject. "Oh! Thank you again Julie, for having me here. I've been having a rough past couple of days over in Tech City. I really needed a break from all of the drama."

Julie-Su gave her a sudden worried look. "No problem. What's been going on anyway, hun?"

She bit her lip as she hesitated to explain her situation with Shadow. She had to admit to herself it was depressing to even talk about it but she knew if she didn't, she would never get her problems off of her chest. "Well, Shadow and I have hit a snag in our relationship…"

"Aw shit…what happened?"

She sighed sadly as she replied, "Shadow cheated on me."

She couldn't believe the words that was coming from her mouth. She couldn't dare imagine Shadow ever cheating on any woman. Least of all Rouge. Not after all the times and years they shared working so closely with each other. "…What? Shadow? Shadow The Hedgehog? I don't believe this…"

The bat woman nodded sadly. Just by saying those words, she felt herself wanting to cry all over again.

"What happened?"

"Well", she began. "He had got a new job as a lieutenant at the G.U.N. military facility."

"Oh I see", she replied with a surprised look on her face.

"And ever since, he started getting close to another woman lieutenant who was trying to get close to him even though she already knew we were dating."

"Wow", she spoke in surprise. "What a bitch."

"Tell me about it", she added in a bitter tone.

"But I don't understand. What made him want to do something like that to you, Rouge?"

"Well, Espio apparently had talked to him face to face about it yesterday. He said the real reason why he had done it was because I didn't trust him enough…" Her eyes slowly wandered down to the ground.

Julie-Su arched an eyebrow and crossed her arms. "Oh that seems like a good enough reason to cheat", she spoke sarcastically.

The bat woman's ear flopped down in sadness, "I don't know, Julie. Looking back at it now, I can kind of see why he did it. No wonder he went after her. I pushed him away…"

Just by hearing the hoarse tone in her voice, she could tell Rouge was on the verge of shedding tears. "So you and Shadow were both at fault. At least now you two see what led up to this." She turned to her with a serious look on her face, "Rouge, in my opinion I'm sure Shadow feels like shit over what he's done. If I were you, I'd talk to him about it face to face one final time to see if he's really sorry."

"…But…what if he hurts me again?"

"Then that has to be risk you're willing to take to give the guy you know you still love another chance to come back into your life."

She made a small nod, "Well, he did seem like he was falling to pieces over it and he sounded really sorry…" She looked back up at her with a small smile. "You're probably right. I'll try to talk to him again. Thank you, Julie."

Her smile widened as she saw Rouge become full of hope that her and Shadow's relationship would eventually get back to where it once was. "Hey I'm no love doctor, but I'm glad I could help."

Rouge felt so thankful she had good friends such as Julie-Su to lean on for support.

"What was the skank's name anyway?" Julie-Su had asked in curiosity.

"Oh, she was actually an echidna. She probably originated from here to be honest."

She arched an eyebrow towards her when she found it interesting to hear that Shadow found interest in an echidna woman. "…Really?"

She made a nod. "Yeah. Who knows? You may have heard of her. She goes by the name Lien-Da."

All of a sudden, Julie-Su's eyes had widened and her heart raced inside of her chest.

Rouge stared her shaking hands. Just seeing her strange reaction had worried her. "…Julie?"

"…Lien-Da…" She slowly looked back at the worried bat woman with a horrified look on her face. "…Did you just say Lien-Da?"

She shifted her eyes nervously before replying to her. "…Yeah?"

Julie-Su clenched her fists tightly and gritted her teeth as she looked back down at the green grass. "It can't be…All these years…This entire time?"

Rouge began to become frightened by Julie-Su's reaction. She figured that Julie-Su had to have some kind of connection with Lien-Da. "Julie, is omething wrong?"

"Yes...very wrong." She slowly turned back to her. "Rouge, Lien-Da is a S ranked criminal here on Angel Island."

"…Wha-What? You…you're kidding?" She watched as she slowly shook her head.

"Lien-Da is Rutan's mother…and also my older step sister."

Rouge uneasily stroked her hand through her hair as she tried to take everything that she had just said in. "I can't believe this…Julie, what's going on? What is this all about? Who the hell is this woman?"

She sighed heavily as she tried to calm herself down so she could start explaining to Rouge about her relationship with Lien-Da. "I suppose I'll start from the beginning…" She stroked her fingers against her cybernetic dreadlock and stared at it as she held it in the palm of her hand. "Years ago, Lien-Da and I used to be apart of a group known as The Dark Legion. They were a group who had claimed to make Angel Island a better place to live in. However, their version of a better world was far from what I had expected. It turned out they were an evil organization that hurt and killed innocent lives but in their eyes they were just simply proving a point so others wouldn't rise against them."

As Rouge listened to Julie-Su explaining about The Dark Legion, she figured that in some point of her life she had followed a few of their examples and have hurt others in the past as well.

"As soon as I figured out what they were about, I left the group along with Lien-Da after I had convinced her. Afterwards, Lien-Da had settled down with a nice guy and throughout their time together, she eventually got pregnant and later gave birth to Rutan. However, shortly after that, her boyfriend had found out she was still secretly working for The Dark Legion. She told him that she was planning to initiate Rutan into The Dark Legion as well."

"…Initiate?" She repeated blankly.

Julie-Su flashed her cybernetic dreadlock at her. "I know you've always been curious about this right? Well, The Dark Legion were extremely reliable with technology so every member of the group had replaced an organic part of their body with cyber enhancements. The classic was always having the one cybernetic dreadlock."

She gasped in horror as she stared at her mechanical dreadlock, "My God…she was going to do that to Rutan?"

She made a small nod, "Yes and when her boyfriend knew about it, he immediately didn't approve of it. At that point, he knew it was too dangerous for Rutan to be around her. So he tried to take him away from her. When she had learned that he was trying to take their son from her, something inside of her snapped…"

Rouge continued to listen carefully to her story, "What happened then?"

"She killed her boyfriend and then started to aimlessly rampage throughout our village." Tears swelled in her eyes as she continued. "She killed my mother and father and also other innocent lives that night. When I found her, she was holding Rutan in her arms while he cried and screamed. They were both drenched in blood from her slaughtering so many of our people."

Rouge's mouth hung open in horror as Julie-Su continued to speak.

"Her eyes…", she spoke in a hoarse voice. "As I looked into her eyes, I could see right then that she was already far too gone…" A tear fell from her cheek, "I tried to stop her but I couldn't. But I did save Rutan before she had taken him with her."

Rouge glanced at Rutan playing with the other kids and then looked back at Julie-Su. Judging by Rutan's current age, she knew that the events that involved Lien-Da had happened at least ten years ago.

"Lien-Da disappeared from Angel Island for years and no one has ever heard any talk of her." She slammed her fist down on the ground hard. "And now knowing she's been in Tech City all this time…And serving as a G.U.N. lieutenant as well…" She had to admit that having Lien-Da working in such a place as that was just surprising that no one had ever heard of it.

"Well, G.U.N. has had some evil leaders in the past so its no surprise how she got the job there", Rouge had spoke.

"Rouge", Julie-Su called. "Listen to me. This woman is very dangerous and if she's as close to Shadow like you say she is, then Shadow maybe in grave danger and to anyone else around her as well."

Rouge gasped in horror at the thought of Lien-Da possibly trying to kill Shadow. Especially when she knew that Shadow was going to supposedly break off any connections he had with her. She had feared the worst. "…Oh God…Shadow…" She saw Julie-Su standing from the ground with her dreadlocks fluttering within the wind.

"There's no time to waste! We need to get to Tech City to warn the others!"

Rouge stood from the ground as well and nodded. "Right!"

Julie-Su looked down at her tightly clenched her fist, 'Lien-Da…it's time to end this…'

**In The Next Chapter...**

**Trevor: Every morning you would walk through those doors and lie to our faces!**

**Sierra: I don't understand any of this...**

**Gin: We never wanted to hurt anyone...**

**Lien-Da: But we'll do whatever it takes!**

**Shadow: You're crazy! Both of you!**


	22. Chapter 22

**CHAPTER 22**

**THE MOTIVATION**

It was dark and it felt like everything was moving. Distant voices could be heard. The voices sounded both scared and angry.

"How could you do this, Miss Lien-Da?" A woman voice had asked while sobbing.

"You're traitors!" A male voice shouted angrily.

He peeked his eyes open slowly and looked around and found himself in a small dark room. It had looked like he was in the back of a vehicle. Perhaps a van? When he looked across from him, he saw a brown cat woman sitting while both of her wrists were held together with zip ties.

She had a terrified expression on her face as tears streamed down her face.

His body felt so weak. It was like he was losing strength by each waking moment. His eyes slowly wandered down to his wrists that were cuffed together by strange silver handcuffs that had a light blue glow coming from them. He tried to break out of them but it was no use. The cuffs wouldn't break. Just by looking at the strange cuffs, he could tell that they had something to do with why he felt so weak.

"Don't even waste the little energy you have left", a woman voice had spoke.

When he had looked up at the woman, the back of his head was throbbing with pain and he could feel some of the blood trickling from where he was hit before he got knocked unconscious. When his eyes fell on the red echidna woman wearing a G.U.N. uniform standing in front of him, anger rose up from within him. "…Lien-Da…" When he saw the look on her face, he had noticed that he had never seen that look on her face before.

She had looked different. Something about her was different. Something about her was off. It was like she had become a completely different person. She pointed down at the cuffs that were restraining the hedgehog's wrists. "Those cuffs were specially made just for you, Shadow. You may have noticed by now but they cancel out your Chaos powers and drain the strength from your body. Perhaps the way it looks maybe familiar to you?"

She was right. When he studied the cuffs once again, he had realized that they were made by the same exact technology Fakir had used on him at one point in the past. He couldn't even move his feet because his ankles were shackled to the legs of the seat he was sitting on. His eyes wandered over to the male yellow lion who was sitting beside him with his wrists being tied together by zip ties as well.

With blood running down the side of his head from where he was knocked out, he looked back at the hedgehog with a relieved expression. It made him feel somewhat more comfortable now that he knew that Shadow was finally awake. "…Lieutenant Shadow", he spoke in a low tone.

Shadow looked over to see who was driving the vehicle. He saw a white male fox wearing a G.U.N. uniform driving the van. It was no other than Gin. He spotted a small black remote control being attached to the holster on his belt. He figured it was the key to unlock the cuffs that were on his wrists. What was happening? Where were they all going?

Shadow directed his attention back to Lien-Da, "What's going on?"

Before she could reply, Trevor had angrily spoke out.

"I'll tell you what's going on! We've all been had!" Tears swelled in his eyes as he shouted angrily, "Lieutenant Gin and Lieutenant Lien-Da are traitors!"

Sierra directed her attention to the white fox. "Sir?" She called in a frightened voice. "How could you do this to us? To all of G.U.N?"

The fox paused for a moment before he replied without turning back to the group. "We never meant to hurt anyone…"

"…Bullshit…"

Gin froze as he heard Shadow's cold and angered voice.

Everyone then directed their attention at the weakened hedgehog who had his head leaning against the cold metal wall of the van. They could tell he was getting weaker and weaker by the moment as the cuffs drained him of his energy.

"Never meant to hurt anyone you say?" A sarcastic chuckle escaped him, "You're full of shit."

Gin spoke out again, "We have our reasons…"

"By experimenting on people?" Trevor asked in an angered voice.

"We're not doing this because we want to", Lien-Da spoke. "We're doing this so we can see our loved ones again."

Trevor, Sierra, and Shadow turned to Lien-Da in confusion.

"You see", Lien-Da began. "A while back Gin and I had to strike a deal with the demon lord himself, Dark Demon."

Everyone's face froze as they heard the familiar demon's name.

"No way!" Sierra spoke out in disbelief.

"Dark is one of the most dangerous and most powerful beings on Mobius!" Trevor added.

Lien-Da made a nod, "Indeed. He isn't exactly someone to take lightly."

"So", Shadow spoke. "You're killing people, turning them into Almas, and handing them over to him? Why?"

Before Lien-Da could answer, Gin had suddenly spoke.

"I know…it's awful but I had no choice…that bastard is holding my wife and daughter hostage…"

Everyone's mouth hung open as they discovered a shocking secret about Gin.

Shadow looked over to Gin who was still paying attention to his driving. '…What? Gin is…married?' He glanced over to Trevor and Sierra who were both giving each other the same shocked expressions. He had figured that not only them but most if not all the workers back at the military didn't have a clue that Gin had a family.

Gin was always so distant and mysterious towards everyone, a lot of people probably assumed that he was a loner. "…If I didn't agree to do what he wanted from me, he promised he would kill them", Gin had said.

"So he's torturing you by holding your family hostage and making you experiment on innocent people?" Trevor asked.

"And that's not even the half of it", Lien-Da had spoken.

Shadow glanced over at the echidna woman. "And what part do you play in this exactly?"

A seriously look had then formed on her face. "He promised he would help me reunite me with the one thing that has always been precious to me."

Everyone gave her a look of curiosity as she began to explain the reason why she was helping Gin work for Dark.

Lien-Da placed her hand gently on her gray necklace, "…Rutan…"

Shadow arched an eyebrow as he tried to remember where he had heard the name before. 'Rutan?' He thought, 'Isn't that her son's name?'

Lien-Da continued on. "Dark promised me that he would reunite me with him and I'm not turning this opportunity down for nothing!"

Everyone stared at her and studied her upset expression.

She then spun around to face Shadow, "So my part of the bargain was to bring you to him alive."

Shadow didn't find it surprising that Dark had wanted Lien-Da to take him to him. But he wondered what did Dark want with him. "What does he want with me?"

Lien-Da shrugged her shoulders carelessly. "Who knows? It's probably some demon thing."

Shadow knew just by the way, she had talked she had already knew he was a half demon. He was pretty sure a lot of people at G.U.N. knew about it. "If Dark wanted you to bring me to him then why are you just acting on this now?"

"Well", she began. "I could've brought you to him sooner but apparently I hesitated…"

Shadow saw her step close and kneel down in front of him. He flinched and avoided her touch as she tried to reach out and touch the side of his face. He had wished that he could do something but his hands were cuffed and he wasn't at full strength to break them.

"Maybe…just maybe…from those last couple of times we fucked each other, perhaps I was starting to feel for you…"

Sierra and Trevor gasped in shock when they had found out about Shadow and Lien-Da's secret affair.

Trevor looked over to Shadow in disappointment while Shadow was giving Lien-Da a hateful glare. "…Lieutenant Shadow?"

Sierra was practically lost for words, "…You and…Miss Lien-Da?"

Shadow saw the two giving him a silent and shameful look. "Hey! In my defense, this was before I knew she was crazy!"

While Gin was driving, he had not at all seemed surprised by the news. Everyone figured that he had already knew about it.

Shadow turned to Lien-Da full of anger. "But when I basically dumped your ass, you got butt hurt? Tough shit! You manipulated me and made me wreck my relationship with my girlfriend!"

"You can blame it on me all you like but we both know that you could've said no and kept your dick in your pants!" She yelled angrily.

"No! You purposely tore me away from Rouge! Because you were fucking jealous of what he had! After all…" he growled in a low tone. "…No one would ever settle for a slut like you."

After hearing what he had said, she paused for a moment and then suddenly punched him hard in the face. "You have no right!" She shouted while her fists shook in anger.

Gin had glanced in the rearview mirror and saw Lien-Da standing in front of Shadow yelling and screaming at him.

"You have no right calling me a slut! You have no idea what I've been through!"

Just because he knew that Lien-Da wouldn't dare take it as far as killing him, he decided to keep provoking her. "No wonder your boyfriend left you and took your son away! You're a crazy attention whore!" He slightly flinched when he saw her lean closer to him and slam her fist into the metal wall near him.

"He didn't leave me you fucking dumb ass!" She yelled, "I fucking killed him! I killed him before he could take my son away from me!"

Shadow paused and was lost for words as he suddenly found out the real shocking truth about what happened between her and her boyfriend.

Sierra and Trevor gave each other both confused and frightened looks as they witnessed Lien-Da's sudden outburst.

Gin decided to try to calm her before she had gotten completely out of hand. "…Lien-Da, calm down."

She turned to the white fox angrily, "Screw you, Gin! Don't tell me to…"

All of a sudden a loud and booming noise was heard behind them. Then before anyone could say anything, everyone's bodies flew to the walls and floor as the van bounced off of the road and slam back down onto the pavement.

**In The Next Chapter...**

**Rouge: Shadow, no!**

**Lien-Da:...It can't be...**

**Julie-Su: It all ends here!**

**Lien-Da: No! I'm not going back! Not yet!**

**Julie-Su:...No...you're not going back to Angel Island! You're never going back!**


	23. Chapter 23

**CHAPTER 23**

**RELAPSE**

Shadow had slowly opened his eyes and looked around the back of the dark van. As he laid on the wall of the turned over van, he could feel blood trickling down his forehead. The shackle that was attached to his ankle had broken after the van had suddenly crashed and turned over. However, his wrists were still cuffed together. His body was so weak, he felt like he could barely move. When he had tried to move, he let out a slight groan from the body aches. He paused when he head Trevor groaning in pain as he slowly gained consciousness. His eyes widened when he saw Trevor's body laying next to Gin's unconscious body. He fixed his eyes on how close Trevor's hands were to the small black remote that was attached to Gin's holster. It was practically almost in his reach. "Trevor", Shadow called in a whisper.

The lion glanced around the small back area of the van. He saw Sierra, Gin, and Lien-Da laying practically piled on top of each other unconscious. He directed his attention to Shadow who was struggling to get up. He then had noticed him staring at the small remote control attached to Gin's belt holster. After understanding what Shadow wanted him to do, he quickly took the remote before Lien-Da had gained consciousness.

As Lien-Da slowly got to her feet, she groaned and held her throbbing forehead. "Wha-what the hell?" She looked over to Gin who was slowly waking up as well. "Gin, get up!" She watched as the white fox stood on his feet slowly.

With some blood running down the side of his head, Gin rubbed his aching head. "What happened?"

Lien-Da took her handgun out of her holster, "I don't know, but I'm going to find out." She looked down at Shadow and picked his weak body off of the floor. "Get up and start walking!"

When he felt the cold metal gun being pressed against the side of his head, he immediately started to make his way out of the van with her following behind him.

When they both made it outside of the van, they stood in the middle of the street directing their attention to another black military van that had flipped over. The van was engulfed in flames and everything that was inside of it was completely destroyed.

Lien-Da's mouth hung open in disbelief from the sight of it. "…Fuck…"

When Gin came out of the destroyed van, he walked out with Sierra and Trevor who still had their wrists zip tied together. He saw the sight of the other destroyed van as well. "What the…"

A small sigh had slipped from her, "…Looks like we lost some precious experiments."

Gin had thought not only were some of the Almas killed but also a few military soldiers who were actually working for them. "But who the fuck did this?"

Shadow, Sierra, and Trevor had wondered as well until they all saw a white female bat woman appear from behind the destroyed van.

Gin had glared at the sight of the familiar woman. "…Isn't that woman…"

Shadow's eyes lit up in the relief at the sight of the bat woman. "Rouge!"

Lien-Da pressed the gun against the side of his head harder when she saw him practically about to run over to her. Her eyes widened when she saw a pink female echidna woman jump down from a staircase on the outside of a nearby building.

The pink echidna stood next to the bat woman and dropped the rocket launcher that she was holding to the ground beside her. She turned to Rouge with a smirk, "Thanks for letting me borrow your little toy, Rouge."

A small sweat drop appeared on the side of her head. "Are you kidding? How were we supposed to know which van they were in? You could've blew them to bits! That's the last time I'm ever letting you borrow any of my explosive weapons, Julie!"

Lien-Da's mouth hung open in disbelief at the sight of the echidna woman standing across from her. "…It can't be…" The more she stared at her, the more the familiar echidna glared back at her. "…Julie-Su!"

"That's right", the pink echidna growled in a hateful tone.

Lien-Da's hands began to shake anxiously as she stared at her, "No…I'm not going back to Angel Island! Not yet!"

"…No…" Julie-Su growled, "You're not going back to Angel Island. In fact, you're never going back!"

"That's what you think, little sister!"

There was a small moment of silence while Shadow glanced back and forth at Lien-Da and Julie-Su in confusion, "What? You two are…related?"

Julie-Su never took her hateful glare off of the red echidna woman. "She's my older step sister."

"…Oh?", Shadow was practically speechless. "Small world this turned out to be."

Julie-Su began to explain a bit of Lien-Da's backstory, "Lien-Da is a wanted S ranked criminal back on Angel Island for infiltrating herself with the Dark Legion and massacring half of my village years ago!"

Shadow, Trevor, and Sierra's eyes had fell on the red echidna woman who just continued to glare over at Julie-Su.

Gin had shifted his eyes away from her. It had appeared that he was quite shocked with hearing about her true identity as well. Perhaps he didn't know himself about her real story.

Even though Shadow shouldn't have been surprised he in fact was now that he had obviously saw what kind of person Lien-Da truly was. "…Everything you told me about your past…it was all a lie…"

Sierra gave the echidna a disappointed look. "You're rotten, Lien-Da…"

Even after when everyone had looked down at her in disappointment, Lien-Da still carried a non caring look on her face.

Julie-Su turned to Rouge with worry, "This is bad…she and that fox has hostages. We can't just act recklessly."

"I know", Rouge spoke. "And it looks like it'll only be me and you. The others are out on another mission and I don't know if they'll make it here in time."

Julie-Su sighed in frustration, "It looks like we're on our own then." She once again looked back over to Lien-Da while she spoke to Rouge. "Rouge, listen to me carefully", she spoke in a low tone. "Lien-Da is emotionally unstable. Her actions are unpredictable. Meaning anyone standing next to her has their life on the line."

Rouge had then feared for Shadow's life as she looked back over to him still having a gun pressed against his head. "Shadow…"

Julie-Su shifted her eyes over to Shadow who had stood there with strange cuffs around his wrists while Lien-Da held a handgun up to the side if his head. "I don't understand", she murmured. "Why is Shadow just standing there? He can easily break free and he knows it."

Rouge studied him carefully. Judging by Shadow's expression, he seemed very weak.

He had almost looked sick even. Her eyes widened when she stared at the strange cuffs that were restraining his wrists. "The cuffs…I think they're cutting off his Chaos powers."

"No wonder he looks so weak." Julie-Su placed her hand near the gun in her holster, "That's just perfect", she spoke sarcastically.

Trevor stared at Rouge and Julie-Su and then glanced over to Shadow, "What's going on?"

Shadow softly whispered back to him. "Don't worry. They're good friends."

Sierra turned her head slowly to Shadow. Tears still swelled in her eyes when she still felt Gin having his gun pointed at her back. "Lieutenant Shadow", she called in a quiet yet frightened tone. "What's going to happen to us?"

Shadow didn't even know how the situation would play out, but he knew Trevor and Sierra looked to him for guidance and comfort. They were both still young and scared. Though he didn't know what was going to happen, he decided to stay positive to keep them both calm. "We'll be okay…I promise."

"Lien-Da! You let them go!" Julie-Su had demanded.

"Back off, Julie-Su! This doesn't involve you!" Lien-Da had shouted back.

"Typical! You'll do anything to make sure the spotlight's all on you!"

"What?" She spoke in uprising anger.

"You've always wanted everything to be about you! You were always so envious of people! Even the relationship me and mother had!"

"Mari-Su was a fool! I would never call anyone such as her my mother! You should be grateful I killed her!"

Everyone just stood there awkwardly listening to Lien-Da and Julie-Su having a spat about their past lives together. Even though the two weren't blood related, they argued like actual sisters would.

Julie-Su had gotten angrier by the moment as Lien-Da continued to argue with her. Just hearing her mention her mother's name brought tears to her eyes. Hearing her brag about how she didn't regret killing her mother fueled her with hate for her even more. "You've always been such a jealous cunt! Even now…all I see before me is an envious bitch and a coward who always runs from her feelings!"

Anger boiled up within her by each insult Julie-Su had thrown at her. "How dare you! You think I'm just playing around here? You think I'm afraid to show how I really feel? I'll show you how I'm really feeling!" She turned to Gin who had a confused look on his face and then her eyes shifted over to the frightened brown cat woman. She suddenly grabbed her and forced her to keel down on her knees while Sierra let out a frightened squeal. She had also made Shadow kneel down next to her. She pressed the gun to the back of Shadow's head.

Rouge gasped as she saw Lien-Da starting to take action.

By the way Shadow had felt the gun lightly shake from the back of his head, he could tell that she was getting nervous. He knew that she wouldn't dare kill him because she had needed to bring him to Dark alive.

When Rouge and Julie-Su saw her actions, they drew their guns from their holsters.

Shadow looked over to Rouge who had gave him a worried look back. While they looked at each other, he attempted to try to get her to read his lips.

Rouge eased her grip on her gun as she watched him try to silently talk to her with his lips. As she studied how he talked, she figured out that he was saying. He was telling her that Lien-Da wasn't going to kill him. Even though he swore that Lien-Da wasn't going to take his life, she still had thought something was going to happen.

Shadow didn't turn his head but he shifted his eyes to Lien-Da who was still trembling angrily as she held the gun to his head. "You can kill me Lien-Da, but leave Trevor and Sierra out of this." He winced slightly as she pressed the gun harder against his head.

"Silence!" She turned to Gin angrily, "Gin! Kill her!"

Tears again streamed down the cat woman's face when she heard Lien-Da's cruel order. "No…", she sobbed softly. "Please, Lieutenant Gin…" She begged, "Please God…no…"

The white fox's heart raced and his body had froze. Lien-Da had wanted him to kill his young assistant. However, something deep down inside of him had prevented him from carrying out the action. "Lien-Da, you said we weren't going to kill them…"

A sarcastic laugh escaped her as she heard Gin's comment. "…What?" She spoke in a confused tone. "You can shoot someone in the head without hesitating but this time is different?"

"…But you said we could let them go. There was no real need to kill them. They're just kids."

She couldn't believe what she was hearing. Gin had all of a sudden didn't want to carry on with their devious plan. "Gin! They saw too much! It's too late! We have no choice! So fucking kill her already!"

He bit his lip as he began to debate against himself on what he thought what he should do. He sighed heavily and slowly pointed his gun away from her. "…I can't do this…Not anymore…I won't be like Itsuki…"

"What! You don't even like her!"

"That's no reason to kill anyone…I realize that now…"

After hearing Gin's decision, a smile of relief had formed on Sierra's face. "Lieutenant Gin…"

Shadow and Trevor were also relieved by Gin's surprising decision.

Lien-Da paused for a moment and couldn't believe that Gin didn't seriously go through with it.

"We don't have to do this, Lien-Da. We can stop this…and let all of this go…all of it…" Gin had flinched slightly when he saw her walk over to him with an furious look.

"You're a spineless piece of shit, Gin!"

When she had suddenly grabbed his sword from his sheath, she used her knee and struck him in the stomach making him fall to the ground.

Before Shadow could even blink, blood was sent flying to the side of his face. He soon heard Trevor's screams echo throughout the street.

"Sierra!"

Shadow slowly looked over and saw the blade of the sword being sliced into Sierra's throat. His eyes widened in horror as he saw Lien-Da jerk the blade of the sword out of her bloody throat. He watched as her lifeless body collapse onto the pavement.

Everyone's body froze as they witnessed the disturbing event taking place.

Julie-Su stared at the blood dripping from the blade of the sword. She held up her silver gun at the red echidna who held the sword tightly in her grip. She could no longer hold in her anger and screamed, "Lien-Da!"

**In The Next Chapter...**

**Trevor: She killed her! That bitch killed her!**

**Gin: I didn't know she would...**

**Shadow: Trevor, stop!**

**Julie-Su: This has to end!**

**Rouge: You won't get away with this!**

**Trevor: Stop that crazy bitch!**

**Lien-Da:...Ru...tan...**


	24. Chapter 24

**CHAPTER 24**

**OVERTURN**

Lien-Da let out a scream of pain as a gunshot had fired into her shoulder. She dropped the sword to the ground and quickly took out her handgun. She looked back at Julie-Su and Rouge standing across from her. She glared at Julie-Su who had fired the first shot at her. When she had began to aimlessly started to fire back at the both of them, Julie-Su and Rouge began to dodge her gunshots.

When the gunshots started firing back and forth, everyone had scattered and began to take cover.

With tears falling from his face after witnessing Sierra's gruesome death, Trevor fled behind a parked car along with Shadow beside him. He turned to the hedgehog as his body shook in distraught, "Lieutenant Shadow…"

Shadow glanced back at Sierra's body laying on the ground with blood still slowly gushing from her slashed throat. He turned away from the gruesome sight and knew what Trevor was feeling and he was feeling the same way. However , he knew how things were going and it wasn't a good time to lose focus on the situation. He tried his best to calm down the panicking lion. "Trevor…"

"She killed her…" He began to sob loudly, "That bitch killed Sierra!"

Shadow knew he was going into a state of panic and anger but he tried his best to try calm him down. "Trevor! Listen to me! I'm angry too but what's done is done! We can't help her now! We need to calm down and think of a way to end this before anyone else's life is taken!"

Before Trevor could say anything else, he and Shadow were both startled when they saw a white male fox taking cover next to them.

The white fox turned to the crying lion with a sympathetic look, "Trevor, I…"

All Trevor knew was that Gin had taken part in the entire thing and immediately blamed Sierra's death partially on him. "You bastard!"

Shadow saw Trevor practically almost throw himself at Gin and yelled at him to stop him. "Trevor, stop! It won't help!"

More tears swelled in his eyes as he didn't quite understand at the moment why Shadow didn't want to literally kill Gin as well. "But he…"

Gin looked down at Trevor's wrists that were still zip tied together. He paused for a moment until he took out a small pocket knife and held it near the lion's wrists.

Trevor flinched slightly as he had no idea what was quite running through Gin's mind when he first pulled out the knife.

Shadow had also gave Gin a defensive look when he lashed out the knife.

Shadow and Trevor watched in shock as Gin cut the zip ties and freed Trevor. There was an awkward silence between the three of them until they both saw Gin's eyes wander down to the ground.

The fox slowly shook his head in disbelief, "…I…I didn't know she would…"

Before Trevor could say anything else, Shadow had once again spoke out to him.

"Trevor…"

He noticed him looking down at the small black remote control he had held in his hand.

Gin suddenly noticed that Trevor had taken the key to Shadow's cuffs probably when he was unconscious when the van had crashed. He made a small nod towards him "…She needs to be stopped."

With a few warm tears still running down his cheeks, he turned back to Shadow. "…Lieutenant Shadow?"

"No…"

Trevor and Gin perked their ears up in confusion at the hedgehog.

The black hedgehog focused his attention towards the two. "My name is Shadow…Shadow The Hedgehog", he spoke in a deep and firm voice. "You got that?"

After when he spoke, Gin and Trevor knew exactly what Shadow had meant by saying that. They knew that after when the cuffs came off of him, Shadow would put behind everything that he had done while he worked for G.U.N.

Trevor made a small nod and held the remote tightly in his grip. "…Stop that crazy bitch." He pushed the button on the remote that had unlocked the cuffs that were on Shadow's wrists.

When the cuffs fell to the ground, Shadow could slowly feel himself regaining his energy one bit at a time. He looked over to Trevor and Gin and made a small nod, assuring them that he would help stop Lien-Da once and for all. He stood from the ground and turned to Lien-Da who continued to fire two handguns at Julie-Su and Rouge.

When Julie-Su ran over to Lien-Da and ready to strike her, she grabbed her by her wrist with one hand and used her clenched fist to punch her hard in the stomach. Julie-Su fell to the ground while holding her stomach.

An evil smirk formed on Lien-Da's lips as she stared down at Julie-Su who was in pain. She pointed one of her guns at the back of her head. "You're pathetic, baby sister."

Rouge gasped when she saw Lien-Da's finger laying on the trigger of the gun. She was afraid she wouldn't be able to confront her in time to stop her from killing Julie-Su. "Julie!" When she attempted to take a step forward, she saw Lien-Da suddenly get knocked to the ground by a strange yellow energy that struck her in her back. Her eyes widened in relief at the sight of a black hedgehog having his hand aimed in Lien-Da's direction. She was relieved that the cuffs Shadow wore were no longer restraining his wrists and Chaos powers. "Shadow!"

Angry, Lien-Da struggled to get off of the ground. Her back ached from the blast. She spun around and turned to Shadow and was surprised to see the cuffs off his wrists. She flashed her eyes over to Gin hatefully. "Fucking traitor…" she spoke while lowly groaning. She took her eyes from him and focused her attention back to Shadow. "So your finally up and at it again eh, Shadow? What are you going to do? Arrest me? Kill me? I know you could…"

A small sigh escaped from him. He admitted that everything she was saying was true. He was at enough strength to easily kill her and end it all right then. However, he figured if Gin could look past his ways then so could Lien-Da. "It doesn't have to be this way, Lien-Da."

A small laugh had came from her, "You're at full strength and you're hesitating on taking me out? What's wrong, Shadow? Do you still perhaps have feelings for me?"

"You can think that way all you like but it all falls down to me not wanting to be with anyone else except Rouge."

Rouge placed her hand on her chest as her heart happily raced when Shadow looked in her direction.

"Maybe I did have feelings for you Lien-Da, but I never loved you. My heart belongs with Rouge."

Tears swelled in her eyes in happiness as she knew that Shadow still apparently had always thought of her and loved her. A small and hopeful smile formed on her lips, "Shadow…"

"…I'm sorry if I ever hurt you." Shadow was looking back at his actions with Lien-Da and still felt terrible for basically leading her on.

Even though it was clear that her and Shadow would never be together, Lien-Da still couldn't help but to feel hurt from his words. She didn't know how she exactly felt about him but she had thought of him as the first man she was very close with in a very long time. "You're a fool, Shadow…" She fought back her tears and angrily spun around to Rouge. "…You should've killed me when you had the chance."

Rouge's heart raced as Lien-Da hatefully glared at her until she pulled out a magnum from the inside of her black and purple trench coat.

Shadow's eyes widened as she pointed the gun in Rouge's direction. "No!" Since he was standing fairly close to her, he figured he would be able to stop her before she fired the gun.

Lien-Da was tackled to the ground by Shadow which caused her to drop the gun from her hand. She fought to get Shadow off of her. She then used her knee and kicked him off of her body. She shoved him off of her and set her sights on the magnum laying next to her. Before she could reach out to it, she saw a purple boot step on top of the gun. She slowly looked up only to see a furious white bat woman.

"I've been waiting a long time to do this…" Rouge forcefully picked her body up from the ground and sent a hard punch to Lien-Da's face.

The hit was so powerful, she almost fell back to the ground. She focused her attention back to the angry bat woman while she wiped some of the blood from her mouth.

"Where's your authority now, bitch?" Rouge had growled under her breath.

An evil smirk formed on her face. "Don't tell me you're still upset over me screwing with your man?" She took out her black whip from her holster and glared at the bat woman. "You can have him back! I'm through with him! But I suppose it doesn't change the fact that he still cheated on you!" When she lashed the whip out at Rouge, she gasped in shock when she saw Rouge catch the whip and hold it in her hand. "You're a fool, Rouge! That piece of shit is lying to your face! He doesn't give a fuck about you or anyone! He's just using you until he can fuck another stupid bitch behind your back!"

Rouge's eyes widened from Lien-Da's sudden outburst.

"Men are lying pieces of shit! They'll walk all over you! Not giving a fuck about how hard people have had it in the past!" Tears once again started to swell in her eyes.

Rouge figured that Lien-Da have had some type of relationship problems in the past.

"No matter how hard you try to please them! No matter how nice you are to them! They'll just fuck you and use the fuck out of you! They think nothing of you and won't have any second thoughts about it! Leaving you hurt and scarred in the end!"

She paused for a second after hearing Lien-Da's words that were filled with hurt from experiences she had went through in the past. "…No…", she spoke. "It's true. It's hard finding a good guy that won't treat women like shit but Shadow is…different. He made a stupid mistake but it happens to all of us. Shadow isn't perfect and neither am I. No one is and that's why no relationship will ever be perfect. It's hard but if two people love each other enough, then everything will work out in the end. You just have to have faith."

A small smile formed on Shadow's face as he found out that Rouge had basically still loved him.

Her grip eased on the handle of the whip as she began to question if Rouge was right. But as haunting images came flooding back in her mind, she angrily gripped the end of the whip again. "Lies!"

When Rouge found out that there was no hope for Lien-Da, she figured the only way to stop her was to continue fighting her. When she tried to snatch the whip out of her grip, Lien-Da was pulled over to her. Rouge had sent another hard punch to her face repeatedly and kept doing so until Lien-Da broke away from her by grabbing one of her wrists and pulling out a dagger from the holster that was attached to her leg.

Shadow's eyes widened when he saw the weapon being pulled out. He quickly pulled Lien-Da's body from Rouge and slammed her onto the ground.

While Lien-Da was on the ground, she used her foot and tripped him to make him fall to the ground. She stood from the ground and approached him with her holding the dagger in her hand. "It didn't have to end this way…" Before she could do anything else, a loud gunshot was heard.

When Shadow looked up at Lien-Da, he saw her pause for second and then drop the dagger to the ground.

She slowly placed her hand on her left upper chest area and felt blood oozing from her gunshot wound.

Speechless, she turned to Rouge who had a handgun pointed in her direction. When she took a small step forward, Rouge had fired yet another shot to her chest and that time, it was enough to knock her down to the ground.

When Rouge saw her fall to the ground, she dropped the handgun and quickly ran over to Shadow in worry. "Shadow!" She kneeled down next to Shadow's body to make sure that he was okay. "Shadow, are you all right?"

He gently placed his hand in hers and made a warm smile. "Yeah. I am now."

She made a warm smile back when she knew that he was going to be okay.

Suddenly, they both saw Julie-Su slowly walking over to Lien-Da's body that was still laying on the ground. When Julie-Su approached her, she looked down and studied her weakened body that was laying in a puddle of her own blood.

With her eyes still barely open, she looked up at the furious pink echidna standing over her. Tears began to fall down her face as she laid on the pavement and looked up at Julie-Su. "…Ru…tan…"

A small sigh escaped Julie-Su as she pulled out her silver gun. She kneeled down next to Lien-Da and whispered softly. "…Rutan is alive and doing well."

After hearing that, more tears streamed down her face and a small warm smile formed on her lips. At last she knew that Rutan was alive and safe. She could now have a peaceful mind now that she discovered that her son was okay. She suddenly saw Julie-Su standing from the ground and pointing the gun at her forehead. She had wished that she could see her son's smiling face one last time. She closed her eyes with the same smile still on her face.

Before anyone could say anything, they all had heard a loud gunshot coming from Julie-Su's gun.

Gin looked down to the pavement in sadness. He was upset that Julie-Su killed her but he knew that it was all for the best

While everyone was distraught and confused, distant police sirens were heard.

Rouge had then saw Julie-Su running over to her. "Julie?"

She looked at her with a serious face. "If anyone asks, that bitch killed her own damn self."

Rouge was speechless from Julie-Su's sudden demands. When she saw her about to take off, she turned to her.

Julie-Su turned to her again before deciding to run off. "If I took her back to Angel Island, they would've executed her anyway and I don't want her own son to watch that shit happen…"

Without saying anything else, Shadow and Rouge watched as Julie-Su fled from the scene before the streets became full of cop cars.

When the police had arrived the rest of the Chaotix team had arrived as well.

Gin had police officers surround him and point their guns at him.

"Put your hands behind your back and get down on the ground!"

Without hesitation, Gin did as he was ordered to do. He kneeled down to the ground and placed his hands behind his back. As he felt his wrists being restrained in handcuffs, he noticed Trevor looking down at him in disappointment. When the cops forced him to stand on his feet, he gave the lion a sympathetic look. "I'm sorry, Trevor. I'm sorry for everything…"

Still angry over Gin's betrayal, he bit his lip as he watched the cops escort Gin away into a cop car.

As Espio looked around the scene, he had saw Sierra and Lien-Da's dead bodies laying on the pavement laying in a pool of their own blood. "Wha? What the hell happened here?"

With Rouge not knowing where to start explaining, she looked over to Shadow and felt his hand caressing her cheek letting her know that everything would be okay.

**In the next chapter...The last chapter! Get stoked!**

**Sarah: It seems that G.U.N. will never recover from this madness...**

**Trevor: It's what Sierra would have wanted...**

**Gin: It's all my fault. I should've done something...**

**Rutan: Who is she?**

**Julie-Su: Your mother loved you very much...**

**Rouge: Will we ever go back to way things were?**

**Shadow:...**


	25. Chapter 25

**CHAPTER 25**

**REDEMPTION**

One week later after Lien-Da's death and Gin's arrest, Tech City had became aware that G.U.N. was recovering from yet another tragic event taking place within the military facility. G.U.N. had currently went through a shut down and every single worker was questioned about the gruesome Almas experimentations.

Shadow and Trevor had decided to meet up with Sarah in her office to discuss what was the future for the G.U.N. military.

There was a long and awkward silence in the room as Sarah sat behind her desk and was lost for words as she looked across her desk and saw Shadow and Trevor sitting across from her.

"So what's going on, Sarah?" Shadow had asked as he broke the silence.

The yellow fox woman leaned on the surface of her desk as she began to reply to him. "G.U.N. is still under investigation ever since the incident took place last week. The entire facility is shut down until further notice."

"What'll happen to all of the workers? The facility? To G.U.N?" Trevor asked in a worried tone.

Sarah let out a small sigh, "…To be honest, I don't know. Due to Gin in prison and Lien-Da's death, it's hard to say what will happen to the facility. Originally, Gin was to step up to become the next commander and Lien-Da would've taken his place if something were to happen but…"

Trevor shifted his eyes away from her and understood why the entire facility was shut down. "I see…"

Sarah shook her head slowly as she became filled with frustration. "I just wish…it would all stop…"

Shadow and Trevor looked at her with blank looks.

"First Itsuki, then Fakir, and now this…"

Shadow and Trevor then looked at each other sadly. They both felt bad for what Sarah and the rest of the city had to go through during all the years with military.

"I'm beginning to wonder if G.U.N. will always be corrupted. The madness just won't stop." Tears slowly formed in her eyes, "And it's probably all my fault G.U.N. is so fucked up..."

Trevor had never seen this side of Sarah before and it had shocked him to see her show these kind of emotions. "Mayor Wish…"

Shadow understood why Sarah was so upset. Apparently, her past was still haunting her and she probably felt like she was the root of all G.U.N's evil. "But it's not your fault, Sarah. You may have made some bad choices in the past but it's in the past for a reason. You were given a second chance and you came back from your loneliness and hate. Now look at you. You're kind, warm hearted, and passionate. Now all you want to do is help people. You're trying Sarah, and that's all what the citizens of this city really wants to see from you."

Sarah fought back her tears and made a nod as she agreed with Shadow's words of encouragement. "…You're right. Thank you, Shadow." She and Shadow had turned to Trevor as he spoke.

"I haven't been with G.U.N. very long but I do hope the facility and the city will recover from all this. This city deserves protection and justice from pure hearted people. At least I know that's what Sierra would have wanted..."

Shadow was pleased to hear such words come from Trevor. At first sight, Shadow knew that Trevor was a good and gentle hearted individual. He formed a warm smile at the yellow lion.

Trevor noticed Shadow smiling as though he had admired him. "…What?"

Shadow paused for a moment and debated if he should share his thoughts with him. "…Nothing it's just…you remind me so much of myself. You remind me how I always felt about this city and what I could do to protect it and make it a safer place to live in."

Trevor's eyes widened in surprise from Shadow's words. "Wha? Really?"

The hedgehog made a small nod at him.

His smile had widened on his face. "…You made a great lieutenant, Shadow."

"Thank you, but my place is at the Chaotix with the rest of the detectives."

After hearing Shadow declining yet another opportunity to work for G.U.N, Trevor couldn't help but to feel slightly disappointed. He knew how passionate Shadow was about helping the military rebuild itself along with the city. He had wished deep down that Shadow would be one of the few to volunteer to help work at the facility especially during its time of need. He admired him because he acted like a positive influence to many of the G.U.N. soldiers and was a great leader. "…I understand. I'll miss working with you, Shadow."

"As will I, Trevor."

Sarah and Trevor watched as Shadow got up from his chair and walked over to the door.

When he placed his hand on the handle of the door, he spoke out to Trevor without turning to him. "If you continue to hold on to your hopes and dreams, maybe the citizens of this city will be acknowledging a new and great G.U.N. commander someday."

After hearing Shadow telling him he had potential to become a military commander, Trevor's eyes lit up in warmth from his words.

When Sarah saw him opening the door "Where are you going?"

He replied without turning to her, "I owe someone a little visit."

Before they could say anything else, Shadow left the office and shut the door behind him.

Later at the Tech City Prison in the cafeteria, Gin sat at a small round table eating a small portioned meal that was in a foam white tray. He took a small bite from the semi warm bread roll and placed it back down on the tray. He sighed slightly and stared down at the rest of the food on the tray. "The way this food tastes, prison is the ultimate kind of Hell." His ears perked up when he heard a chair being dragged at the front of the table. He quickly looked up and saw a familiar black and red hedgehog sitting across from him. "…Shadow?"

"In the flesh." His eyes fell upon the orange prison jump suit Gin was wearing. "New uniform I see…"

Annoyed by his sarcastic remark, he pushed his tray of food to the side and gave the hedgehog his full attention. "So what do I owe this lovely visit?"

The hedgehog gave him a teasing look. "I came to just admire how much you're living it up in here."

"Oh yeah", he spoke in a bitter voice. "This place is just paradise. I get four square meals a day, I got a fun roommate, oh and I've run into a lot of familiar faces since I got here."

Shadow was thinking he must have ran into some of his old enemies within the prison. His eyes widened when he saw a bread roll being thrown at the side of Gin's head.

"Fucking jackass!" A random male voice had shouted from across the room while laughing.

The white fox didn't turn to face who had thrown the bread roll at him. All he did was sit there and rolled his eyes in annoyance.

"Gee this place is just so wonderful", Shadow spoke sarcastically.

"Yeah", Gin growled. "This place is a fucking candy land. Why did you come here anyway?"

He had then gave him a serious look, "Do you know what's been going on with your end?"

The fox shook his head slowly. "Not yet. The trial is still ongoing. They're still deciding on what to do with me. If I'm lucky, they'll put me in the chair and call it a day."

Shadow wasn't really surprised that Gin felt so dark about his situation. He could imagine how awful Gin had felt for killing innocent military officers and perhaps other unnecessary murders he had committed in the past. "You never know. They may not execute you."

"Well if they don't, they're real fucking dumbass's. I took so many lives and to make it worse, I may as well have dug Lien-Da's grave as well."

Shadow had gotten confused by what he had meant. He thought that Gin and Lien-Da were on good terms most of the time. They were so comfortable around each other, they had even picked with one another at times. "Why do you say that?"

He placed his hand on his forehead and sighed heavily. "Lien-Da was already emotionally unstable but I don't think she would've gotten so bad with it if it weren't for me."

The way Gin was talking, Shadow assumed that something had happened between them years ago within the facility. "…What happened? Years ago in the facility?"

Gin's eyes sadly wandered down onto the white surface of the table. "It happened years ago. A little before Itsuki's death to be exact. At the time, Itsuki was the commander and Fakir was a lieutenant. I studied under Itsuki while Lien-Da was mentored by Fakir. Itsuki and I got along way better compared to Fakir's relationship with Lien-Da."

Shadow crossed his arms as he listened to him closely.

"Fakir and Lien-Da never saw eye to eye. If they did, it was rare. Even before Fakir's new reign of becoming the commander, he was a sick and demented man. All that bastard talked about was sex and how fun it is to kill and torture people. And Lien-Da was always by his side..."

Shadow's eyes widened as horrible thoughts began to flood his mind.

Gin saw Shadow's shocked facial expression, "That's right. Fakir did exactly what you think he did to her. He raped her…"

Now it was all starting to make sense to him. No wonder Lien-Da had gotten so defensive whenever someone called her a slut. Apparently she had a strong history with Fakir who had brutally assaulted her. "…Holy shit."

Gin continued, "It wasn't just once or twice either. He did it to her constantly. It went on for years."

"Didn't anyone know about it?"

The fox made a small nod. "It was just Itsuki and myself. I'll admit Itsuki was just as crazy as Fakir but compared to him, he was just a little bit easier to be around. But don't get it wrong. Itsuki was still a piece of shit. He was uncomfortable with the fact that Fakir had tortured her every chance he could get but at the same time, he did nothing about it."

Shadow arched an eyebrow towards him. "…And you?"

He sighed sadly, "Just as Itsuki, I did nothing about it. We just let it happen."

Shadow found it odd that Gin was so heartless that he wasn't even there to help Lien-Da in her time of need and they were supposed to have been good friends.

Gin began to slowly clench his fists while he set them on the surface of the table. "It was horrible…what he had did to her. I would always see her with cuts, scratches, and bruises."

"And no one in the facility questioned her about the marks on her body?"

"A few did but she had made up an excuse for it. But some of the workers even started rumors and just assumed that Fakir was beating her. And when it got back to Fakir, he tracked down who was talking shit and pretty much beat them senseless and then kill them."

Shadow's jaw dropped. He had known how insane Fakir was in the past during his encounters with him, but he had no idea he had gotten away with so much inside of the military facility. All because he was a top ranked soldier and Itsuki didn't care who Fakir had hurt or killed to get what he had wanted. "This is unbelievable…"

"Even when he knew that I had obviously known about his assaults against her, he told me to keep quiet about it or he'd kill me too. I knew that Fakir had clearly didn't like me and he despised my friendship with Lien-Da." He shook his head as terrifying images came rushing back to his mind. "At times he would fuck with me by making me watch him torture her in front of me." Tears swelled in his eyes, "She cried and screamed…she was so scared and I didn't do anything because Fakir was dangerous and crazy. That was probably the reason why she didn't say anything, why she didn't beg anyone to help her. She knew that he would fucking kill her if she didn't do anything he asked of her. She was literally his slave."

Just hearing the full story dealing with Lien-Da's mental state, made Shadow feel kind of bad for her. She was driven to the way she was partially due to Fakir's torturous acts against her.

"Looking back at it now, I was nothing but a coward. I should've done something but I didn't..."

"If there's one thing I can agree on you with, then yeah you should've spoke up and helped her despite the consequences. Because that's what good friends are supposed to do for each other."

He bit his lip lightly and made a sad nod, "The more Fakir tortured her every day in and day out, the more it got to her. It tore her mind to pieces. So much, she was beginning to think what Fakir had did to her was out of love and she was later saying how much she loved him." He shook his head, "She didn't fucking love him. She hated him but that's what she was beginning to think what love really was. The entire thing tore her mind apart…more than it already was. When Fakir had died, it was too late. She was officially insane…"

Shadow then saw Gin beginning to shed a few tears. He could tell just by looking at him that Gin felt extremely guilty and regretted not doing a thing to help Lien-Da.

"And it's all my fault. If only I did something then maybe things would've turned out different for her."

Shadow had agreed if Gin had acted back then, perhaps Lien-Da would still be alive.

"Maybe she could've seen her son again and maybe I could've reunited with my family." He tried to wipe some of the tears from his face. "I guess we were both just chasing a dream."

"Yeah I still had no idea you had a wife and all."

"Yeah apparently not many people didn't know about it. I'm glad I did kind of keep it on the down low. I had quite a few enemies and I wasn't on the best of terms with a lot of people. But I guess it doesn't matter now. Either I'll rot in here for the rest of my life or I'll end up getting executed. I fucked up. I'll never get to see my family again…"

A small smile had slowly appeared on his face. He stood from his chair, "I wouldn't count on it."

Gin saw Shadow looking across the room. He had wondered who he was looking at. He looked across the room as well and saw a white fox woman who had appeared to be around his age.

The woman held the hand of a young white fox girl who was standing next to her. The little girl had appeared to be around nine or ten years old.

As Gin stared at the familiar mother and child, tears of happiness filled his eyes, "…Oh my God…"

When they both caught Gin staring at them in disbelief, the little girl ran over to him with a wide smile and happy tears streaming down her face.

"Papa!" The little girl ran into Gin's arms and embraced him in happiness.

Gin held the child in his arms tightly while tears ran down his face. "Oh my God! Marie!"

"Papa! I missed you so much!"

As he held her, he felt like he couldn't let go of her. "I missed you too, sweetheart."

Shadow smiled warmly when Gin's wife had walked over to him to passionately hug him.

Gin hugged and kissed the woman lovingly. He took his lips from hers and cupped her face, "…Charlotte, you're okay. You're both okay." He turned to Shadow and looked for an explanation from him. "…Shadow?"

"Me and the rest of the Chaotix were out on a field mission and during the mission we ran into someone who apparently knew you."

Gin figured Shadow had convinced the Chaotix to help find his family. "You found them? What about Dark?"

"Well by the time we got there Dark had disappeared. We couldn't find any trace of him", Shadow explained.

Gin couldn't believe that Shadow had went out to of his way to reunite him with his family. Especially after how he had betrayed him. He honestly didn't know what to say or do from his sudden kind act towards him. "…Shadow, I…thank you…"

Shadow saw how happy Gin was and he honestly didn't think he would ever see Gin look so happy. He figured that he should let Gin spend some much needed time with his wife and daughter. After all, Gin was still going through his court trial and he knew that his sentence wouldn't look very good in the end. If Gin were to be executed, he knew he would die with a peace of mind knowing that his wife and daughter were still alive. "Good luck, Gin", he murmured before he walked away from the happy family.

Much later that afternoon on Angel Island, Shadow, Rouge, and Julie-Su were watching a little red echidna boy picking flowers from the ground from a distance.

Shadow stared at the young boy happily picking flowers. "So", he spoke. "That's him?"

Julie-Su made a small nod. "Yeah that's Lien-Da's son..."

"…Rutan…" Rouge spoke in a soft voice.

As Shadow looked at the echidna boy, he felt sorry for him. He grew up without ever knowing a single thing about Lien-Da. "That poor boy."

Rouge turned to Julie-Su, "Are you sure you wanna tell him?"

The pink echidna made a small nod to assure her that she felt it was time for Rutan to know the truth about Lien-Da. "He needs to know. It's not fair to him." Before she could walk over to him, Shadow had suddenly spoken.

"Oh that reminds me!"

Rouge and Julie-Su watched as he took out a grayish looking necklace from the inside of his black trench coat.

He walked over to Julie-Su and placed the necklace in the palm of her hand gently. "I pulled it off of her before they started doing autopsies and shit on her."

Julie-Su clenched the necklace tightly in her hand. "…Thank you."

Shadow and Rouge watched as she began to walk over to Rutan.

When the small child heard footsteps behind him, he turned to see the pink echidna standing there. He smiled at the sight of her and stood to his feet while presenting two white flowers to her. "Aunt Julie-Su, look! I picked more flowers for you!"

She made a small yet friendly smile at him and gently took the flowers from him. "That's very nice of you Rutan." Her smile faded as she prepared herself to bring up the subject of Lien-Da to him. She slowly kneeled down in front of him. "We need to talk."

He nervously focused his attention to her. "…Talk? Am I in trouble? What did I do?"

She gently stroked her hand through his red dreadlocks to simmer him down a bit. "You're not in trouble, sweetie."

"Then what's wrong?" He suddenly saw her pull out a gray necklace and place it in his hands. He stared at the necklace in curiosity. "What is it?"

"Open it", she simply said.

As he studied it more, he had then noticed that it was a locket. He opened it and inside of it, he saw a picture of a red echidna woman who appeared to be at a very young age during the time the picture was taken. She looked around seventeen or maybe eighteen. The woman also had one cybernetic dreadlock just as Julie-Su. As he looked harder at the picture he also noticed that the woman was holding a red baby echidna boy in her arms. She had looked so happy while she held the baby. "Who is she? She's really pretty."

Julie-Su took a deep breath before she answered him. "Rutan, that woman is your mother."

His eyes were full of shock as he continued to study the picture. "So that means this baby is me?"

She made a small nod.

"I never knew her because she left me when I was only a baby but…what kind of mother does that to her son? Didn't she want me? Didn't she love me?"

When she saw tears swelling in his eyes, she felt like she had wanted to cry as well. It was sad of her to see Rutan this upset. He had thought that Lien-Da absolutely wanted nothing to do with him. She caressed his cheek gently. "Oh Rutan, your mother did love you. She loved you very much…"

A tear had streamed down his cheek, "Then why did she leave me and never come back?"

Julie-Su fought back her tears as much as she could until she could no longer do so. A tear had fallen from her face. She knew Lien-Da had really cared about Rutan but she was far too emotionally unstable to take care of him let alone her own self. "…I don't know how to really explain this but…your mother was sick. Very sick…"

He saw her starting to cry as well and it made him wonder what had exactly happened to his mother. Did she die from an illness? If so, it had to have happened recently. "…Sick? And my dad…is he sick too? Is he not here because he fell ill?" More tears fell from his face, "Maybe someday they'll come back and take care of me and I could take care of them and help them get better. Then we can start over and be a family. We could all live together happily..." His words trailed off when she had suddenly pulled him into a loving embrace.

Julie-Su pulled the upset child to her and held him in her arms as she broke down and cried. "I'm sorry, Rutan", she spoke with a sniffle, "I'm so sorry…"

From a distance, Shadow and Rouge watched the two hug and cry into each other's arms.

Rouge stared at the two sadly. By the way things had looked, she figured Julie-Su had informed Rutan a little more information about the tragic back story of his mother. "Do you think he'll be allright?"

Shadow made a small nod. "It'll just take some time."

She turned to him with her arms crossed, "…What about us?"

Shadow gave her a look of confusion as she suddenly began to ask about their relationship with each other.

"Will we be okay?"

Shadow had paused for a moment as he thought about what had lied ahead for him and Rouge. "…I fucked up, Rouge. I fucked up so bad to the point where I had almost lost you."

Rouge shifted her eyes from him as she was still disappointed from his actions. "You really hurt me, Shadow…"

"I know and I wish I could take it all back. Like you said, no one is perfect. No relationship will ever be perfect."

She made a small nod as she agreed with him.

"But…" He held her hand gently. "…I feel like your perfect for me. I don't know how to describe it because I suck at this relationship thing apparently but I feel like you're the one I'm supposed to be with. I can't imagine myself being with anyone else except you."

A small warm smile had slowly formed on her lips. She was relieved that Shadow was still very passionate about their relationship and he truly showed that he was sorry for ever cheating on her. "But where do we start?"

He suddenly held his arms apart in front of her. "We can start with one of these."

Her smile widened and then decided to embrace the hedgehog.

He smiled as he returned the hug. "I love you, Rouge and nothing's going to change that."

"I love you too, Shadow."

He suddenly felt her pull away from him. He watched as she angrily pointed at him.

"But if you ever cheat on me again, I'll chop your dick off, shove it down your throat, and choke you to death with it!"

He paused for the longest time and didn't know what to quite say at first from her comment. "…Um I suppose that's fair enough", he spoke in a nervous tone.

She made a teasing giggle and hugged him once again. "I love you."

When they had hugged again, he had returned the hug with an uneasy expression. "I love you too, my not so scary girlfriend."

**Author's Note: And boom goes the dynamite! Finally! This story has finally come to a close! And I have to say I wasn't sure how well this fic would have went when it was first posted. I had no idea it would gain so much popularity in the end! I worked hard on this entire story and looks like it paid off just to read all of you guys' lovely reviews and comments! I just want to thank you all for your patience and support! I appreciated all of your feedback! Your reviews motivated me to keep going! I hope you all enjoyed the story! The ending was pretty intense too huh? lol! Well, looks like I have more stories in the works to get cracking on so keep a look out! I again thank you all for reading! Love you all!**


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